Analysis and improvement of defectivity in immersion lithography

Katsushi Nakano; Soichi Owa; Irfan Malik D.D.S.; Tetsuya Yamamoto; Somnath Nag

doi:10.1117/12.656195

21 March 2006 Analysis and improvement of defectivity in immersion lithography

Katsushi Nakano, Soichi Owa, Irfan Malik D.D.S., Tetsuya Yamamoto, Somnath Nag

Proceedings Volume 6154, Optical Microlithography XIX; 61544J (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.656195
Event: SPIE 31st International Symposium on Advanced Lithography, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

In this paper, we report results of comprehensive studies of defects originating in immersion photolithography clusters comprising immersion volume production tool (S609B, NA=1.07) and engineering evaluation tool (EET, NA=0.85). Defectivity of S609B was very low, 0.013 /cm2; it attained dry exposure level successfully. Defectivity results using EET were also very promising in all three major resist processes including solvent soluble topcoat, developer soluble topcoat and topcoat-less resist. Defectivity did not show any scan speed dependency and target size dependency, showing the extendibility of our immersion technology to future mass production phase. In particular, we found that for 50 ml water droplets, receding angle larger than about 70 degree provides immersion process free of immersion-specific defects. We successfully demonstrated very effective defect analysis technique named DSA (defect source analysis) to show what defects are immersion-specific. We also revealed the defect generation mechanism of each defect types. Deep understanding of defectivity behavior leads to a conclusion that immersion lithography is viable for IC manufacture at 45 nm node.

Citation Download Citation

Katsushi Nakano, Soichi Owa, Irfan Malik D.D.S., Tetsuya Yamamoto, and Somnath Nag "Analysis and improvement of defectivity in immersion lithography", Proc. SPIE 6154, Optical Microlithography XIX, 61544J (21 March 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.656195

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