EUV patterning improvement toward high-volume manufacturing

Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) technology is a promising candidate for a semiconductor process for 18nm half pitch and beyond. So far, the studies of EUV for manufacturability have been focused on particular aspects. It still requires fine resolution, uniform and smooth patterns, and low defectivity, not only after lithography but also after the etch process. Tokyo Electron Limited and imec are continuously collaborating to improve manufacturing quality of the process of record (POR) on a CLEAN TRACK TM LITHIUS Pro TM Z-EUV. This next generation coating/developing system has been upgraded with defectivity reduction enhancements which are applied along with TEL TM best known methods. We have evaluated process defectivity post lithography and post etch. Apart from defectivity, FIRM TM rinse material and application compatibility with sub 18nm patterning is improved to prevent line pattern collapse and increase process window on next generation resist materials. This paper reports on the progress of defectivity and patterning performance optimization towards the NXE:3300 POR.