Immersion lithography was applied to 45nm node logic and 0.25um2 ultra-high density SRAM. The predictable enhancement of focus margin and resolution were obtained for all levels which were exposed by immersion tool. In particular, the immersion lithography enabled to apply the attenuating phase shift mask to the gate level. The enough lithography margin for the alternating phase shift mask was also obtained by using not only immersion tool but also dry tool for gate level. The immersion lithography shrunk the minimum hole pitch from 160nm to 140nm. Thus, the design rule for 45nm node became available by using immersion lithography.
We propose a new criterion for mask birefringence in polarized illumination. Mask birefringence is one of the
critical properties of polarized illumination, because the illumination polarization is disturbed by the birefringence of a
mask substrate. From this point of view, the allowable mask birefringence has already been analyzed. In these analyses,
only the absolute values of birefringence have been specified. As has been pointed out, the mask is a rotation retarder
for the polarized illumination. Therefore, the angle of the fast axis of mask birefringence also affects the state of
polarization.
The new criterion of mask birefringence which we propose here adopts the angle of fast axis as well as the
absolute value of birefringence. This new criterion correlates well with the printed critical dimensions (CDs). To
demonstrate this, printed CDs were calculated as a function of birefringence. A lithography simulator was used to verify
the fit of the new criterion. In this simulation, experimentally measured absolute values of birefringence and the angle
of fast axis were used. The simulation showed that there was poor correlation between printed CDs and the absolute
values of birefringence. On the other hand, the new criterion exhibited a good correlation with the printed CDs. This
difference is attributed to the effect of the angle of fast axis.
This paper presents the impact of hyper-NA (NA > 1) lithography on the specification of mask critical-dimension (CD) uniformity. In order to realize the hyper-NA lithography, it is needed to adopt new technologies such as a liquid-immersion setup and polarized light illuminator. In the immersion lithography, it has been shown that the mask CD tolerance can be relaxed if NA is increased. This relaxation originates from the increase of the exposure-latitude (EL) in defocus conditions. As has also been reported, polarized light imaging enhances the EL of line-and-space patterns. This indicates that the application of polarized light imaging may enable us to relax the mask CD tolerance. In this paper, the mask CD relaxation will be discussed based on lithography simulations. In addition, the influences of mask birefringence and state of polarization in illuminator on the wafer CD will be discussed. Quartz substrate used as a mask blank can act as a rotation retarder, because of the presence of intrinsic stress induced in manufacturing processes. Therefore, the state of polarization of mask-transmitted light is disturbed. As a result, wafer CD is affected both by the mask birefringence and state of polarization in illuminator; hence, specification of mask CD uniformity (CDU) is also influenced. In this paper, the specification of mask CDU will be discussed by taking the effect of the impact of state of polarization in illuminator and mask birefringence into account. These results accelerate the practical use of hyper-NA lithography in 45-nm node.
Dry-etch two-dimensional (2D) model functions have been investigated via 2D SEM image analyses. To evaluate dry-etch bias with respect to its 2D geometry, critical 2D pattern shapes of pre- and post-dry-etch process were compared. From the geometrical evaluation results we have confirmed that dry-etch biases can be expressed by a linear function of 2D pattern/space densities, for which integration should be taken only inside of nearest-neighbor pattern edges. It is guessed that those specific densities are required for estimating the thickness of passivation polymer films upon etching trench sidewall, which is assumed to be a critical factor for etch bias variations. We have obtained good correlations between etch bias and inside-edge pattern/space density; correlation coefficients of 0.95 for SiO2 trench etching process and 0.94 for Si trench etching process have been obtained, respectively. Optimum kernel radii of these processes were about 600 nm - 800 nm in our experiment. These distances would indicate the scope of micro-loading effect. If device pattern complexities come to these sizes, 2D pattern correction by 2D model function should be required for dry-etch biases instead of current rule-based correction.
This paper presents the first results on mask critical-dimension (CD) specifications for the hyper-numerical aperture (hyper-NA) lithography. The mask CD specifications have been derived from experimental results applying the immersion lithography with NA being 0.85. The experiment has been performed for a hole pattern corresponding to the 65-nm node with NA = 0.75 or 0.85. From this experiment, it was found that the higher-NA condition (NA = 0.85)
makes the mask CD tolerance being more than doubled as compared to that under the lower-NA condition of NA = 0.75 while retaining the depth-of-focus (DOF) margin. This relaxation in the CD tolerance is attributable to the enlargement of DOF in the immersion lithography where the DOF becomes more than n times larger than that with the dry
lithography under the same resolution limit (n: refractive index of immersion fluid). Analyses of the mask CD tolerance have been performed by applying a newly-developed method, that enables a quantitative analysis of mask CD error and DOF margin. In addition, the mask CD error margin for the 45-nm node have also been estimated by performing a lithography simulation under conditions with NA = 1.07 and 1.20. From this simulation, it was predicted that for the
case when NA = 1.07, the mask CD error margin requires specifications on mask that are almost unachievable if one concerns the status of current mask manufacture processes together with the forecast on the processes given in the ITRS 2004 roadmap. On the other hand, the simulation predicted that the higher-NA condition (NA = 1.20) with the immersion imaging realizes a relaxation in the mask CD tolerance, leading to realistic specifications on mask. Therefore, this strategy realizes a breakthrough to avoid the "mask crises".
Parameter optimization is a key issue to develop low-k1 lithography processes, in which the number of control and error factors has been increasing. This holds especially true for alternating phase-shifting mask (alt-PSM) techniques; i.e., for this technique, not only exposure conditions but also mask structures should be optimized under various error factors (or noise factors), such as defocus, dose fluctuations, lens aberrations, mask making errors and so on. This paper describes a novel method of performing such optimization, which is developed based on a method of design of experiments (DOEs). Stabilities of target performance for various combinations of parameters are simulated by varying noise factor levels which are assigned to an orthogonal array. Optimum values of parameters are determined so as to maximize the stabilities of target performance.
This method is applied to a 45-nm node alt-PSM (alternating phase-shifting mask) technique. Optical conditions, such as NA (numerical aperture) and σ-value, and mask structures, such as trench depth and undercut size, are optimized under various noise factors by applying our method for optimization. As a result, high stability of critical dimension (CD) is obtained together with sufficient suppression of image placement errors. The optimized result is further verified by statistic calculations. Finally, we conclude that our method is a very powerful tool to simultaneously optimize lithographic conditions for low-k1 lithography processes.
Parameter optimization is a key issue to develop low-k1 lithography processes, in which the number of error factors and that of critical patterns have been increasing. In order to attain a target performance of integrated circuits under numerous error factors (or noise factors), this paper describes a novel method to optimize various parameters simultaneously. The parameters include not only those related to exposure conditions such as NA, sigma and etc, but also include those related to layout restrictions for various patterns. The optimization method we applied is based on the Taguchi method for robust design experiments, which uses orthogonal arrays with a single criterion, which is called “signal-to-noise (SN) ratio”, for optimization. The optimization is performed so as to maximize the SN ratio for a pattern critical-dimension (CD) or the SN ratio for an operating window such as the open-to-short operating window of electric connections. Two cases of optimization are reported in this article, one for an intermediate metal layer in a 45 nm-node device, and the other for a via-hole layer connected to the metal layer. Any type of noise factors and critical patterns could be taken into account and an optimum set of parameters could be determined quickly and simultaneously by applying the method. The results demonstrate that this global optimization method is a very powerful tool to optimize multiple parameters in low-k1 lithography processes.
In 45nm-node CMOS, the k1 value is around 0.35. In the low-k1 lithography, the robust design for lens aberration and process fluctuation such as mask CD error is required for manufacturing. The technologies of robust design for 45nm-node CMOS are proposed. The alternating phase shift mask has been applied to obtain high accurate CD controllability for gate level. Since the sensitivity to lens aberration is high, design rule is restricted. Immersion lithography with hyper NA over 1.0 is necessary for contact hole level to get large DOF margin. Since the mask enhanced error factor is large, high accurate CD uniformity on mask is necessary. Using hyper NA immersion tool, high density SRAM whose area is 0.25um2 can be clearly resolved.
In order to clarify the direction of the lithography for the 45 nm node, the feasibilities of various lithographic techniques for gate, metal, and contact layers are studied by using experimental data and aerial image simulations. The focus and exposure budget have been determined from the actual data and the realistic estimation such as the focus distributions across a wafer measured by the phase shift focus monitor (PSFM), the focus and exposure reproducibility of the latest exposure tools, and the anticipated 45 nm device topography, etc. 193 nm lithography with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.93 achieves the half pitch of 70 nm (hp70) by using an attenuated phase shift mask (att-PSM) and annular illumination. 193 nm immersion lithography has the possibility to achieve the hp60 without an alternative PSM (alt-PSM). For a gate layer, 50-nm/130-nm line-and-space (L/S) patterns as well as 50 nm isolated lines can be fabricated by an alt-PSM. Although specific aberrations degrade the critical dimension (CD) variation of an alt-PSM, ±2.6 nm CD uniformity (CDU) is demonstrated by choosing the well-controlled projection lens and using a high flatness wafer. For a contact layers, printing 90 nm contacts is very critical by optical lithography even if the aggressive resolution enhancement technique (RET) is used. Especially for dense contact, the mask error factor (MEF) increases to around 10 and practical process margin is not available at all. On the other hand, low-energy electron-beam proximity-projection lithography (LEEPL) can fabricate 80 nm contact with large process margin. As a lithography tool for the contact layers of the 45 nm node devices, LEEPL is expected to replace 193 nm lithography.
The relationship between the optical proximity effect (OPE) and the underlayer reflection has been investigated by using negative and positive resists in sub-quarter-micrometer lithography. A new evaluation method that uses the center exposure dose of the ED-window (1-2) is been proposed. This technique takes the manufacturing margin into consideration and can be used to obtain the common ED-window of isolated and density patterns. The negative resists show a small critical dimension variation between isolated and density lines (CD bias) with the most suitable exposure dose and best focus conditions. However, the common ED-window of the isolated and density patterns is poor in terms of the manufacturing margin. Furthermore, the (sigma) dependence of the negative resist is too weak to improve the manufacturing margin. The effect of the underlayer reflection on the CD bias of the negative resist is significant in our experiment. On the other hand, the positive resist shows strong (sigma) dependence. Because the influence of the underlayer reflection on the positive resist is small, it is important to optimize (sigma) when improving the CD bias for the positive resist. In order to compare the negative and positive resists under equivalent conditions, a resist development simulation was used. The simulation results show the negative resist could be capable of high performance.
Practical resolution, which is defined as the minimum geometry for a 1.0 micrometers depth of focus, in conventional krypton fluoride (KrF) excimer laser (248 nm) lithography is 0.30 micrometers . A new illumination technique, which uses a weak quadruple effect to enhance the depth of focus and to solve the current problems in the off-axis illumination techniques, has been developed. This new illumination technique is suitable for use with the attenuated phase shifting mask. With this combination technique, a 1.8 micrometers depth of focus using a 0.45 NA KrF excimer laser stepper can be achieved without a secondary peak in the distribution of light intensity for the various duties 0.30 micrometers space patterns. Even for hole patterns, a 2.0 micrometers common depth of focus can be achieved. These results indicate that KrF excimer laser lithography is a powerful candidate for beyond 0.25 micrometers -rule devices. It is also confirmed that i-line lithography is an expectable candidate for the second generation of 0.35 micrometers -rule devices.
The performance and practical fabrication latitude of attenuated phase shifting masks have been studied using a newly developed exposure-defocus and mask fabrication latitude (EDM) methodology in which the mask linewidth latitude is taken into account as well as the conventional estimation parameters such as the exposure latitude and depth of focus (DOF). Both isolated and dense 0.3 micrometers contact hole (C/H) patterns have been evaluated using an EDM process window which is obtained by the light intensity profiles with the KrF 248 nm exposure, NA equals 0.45 and (sigma) equals 0.3. When the practical process latitude of within +/- 5% of exposure dose and +/- 0.01 micrometers of mask linewidth are supposed, background transmittances of more than 9.00% and phase error controllability within +/- 2 degrees are required for both isolated and dense C/H patterns. The EDM window is steeply shrunk by the enhanced optical proximity effect for the dense C/H pattern at a pitch of less than 0.90 micrometers .
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