Time-dependent electron-beam-induced photoresist shrinkage effects

Benjamin D. Bunday; Aaron Cordes; Carsten Hartig; John A. Allgair; Alok Vaid; Eric Solecky; Narender Rana

doi:10.1117/1.JMM.11.2.023007

5 June 2012 Time-dependent electron-beam-induced photoresist shrinkage effects

Benjamin D. Bunday, Aaron Cordes, Carsten Hartig, John A. Allgair, Alok Vaid, Eric Solecky, Narender Rana

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, Vol. 11, Issue 2, 023007 (June 2012). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.11.2.023007

Abstract

We explore how photoresist shrinkage behavior due to e-beam measurement by critical dimension-scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM) depends on various time-related factors. This will include an investigation of how the photoresist critical dimension (CD) and CD shrinkage varies with photoresist age and the differences in shrinkage trends between load/unload and static and dynamic repeatability cases, where time between measurements is a key variable. The results for this typical immersion argon flouride photoresist process will show that resist CD and shrinkage variation due to resist age and vacuum-cycling is insignificant, yet the shrinkage is strongly linked to time between consecutive measurements, with a well-defined, high-certainty logarithmic decay with time. These experiments identify a key difference between the shrinkage seen in static versus dynamic measurements, which will be shown to have far-reaching implications for the shrinkage phenomenon in general and for the best-known methods for executing CD-SEM metrology with photoresist samples.

Citation Download Citation

Benjamin D. Bunday, Aaron Cordes, Carsten Hartig, John A. Allgair, Alok Vaid, Eric Solecky, and Narender Rana "Time-dependent electron-beam-induced photoresist shrinkage effects," Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS 11(2), 023007 (5 June 2012). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMM.11.2.023007

Published: 5 June 2012

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