Abstract

Microelectronic devices for future applications demand lithographic performance that falls within the 0.10 μm region and below. Chemically amplified resists (CARs), such as the positive tone commercial UVIII resist, offer a substantial gain in sensitivity, resolution, and process efficiency in deep ultraviolet, e-beam, and X-ray lithographies. In this work, the UVIII resist is characterized for X-ray lithographic applications by studying the "deprotection" or acid generation-diffusion process of the resist under different conditions of post-exposure bake (PEB) temperature and time, and of X-ray exposure dose. The X-ray irradiation from a copper anode at a wavelength of 1.33 nm was at an intensity of 30 μW/cm² on the resist surface. The deprotection process of the resist during PEB was accurately monitored by using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The infrared absorption peaks at 1151, 1369, and 2977 cm^-1 in the spectrum of the UVIII resist were found to be useful indicators for the completion of deprotection. Results of the experiments showed that the performance of UVIII could be optimized at the PEB temperature of 140 °C, a time of 2 min, and X-ray exposure dose of 12 mJ/cm². The change in resist thickness after PEB was also measured. The results were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in which a test structure as small as 0.12 μm was obtained in a 1-μm-thick UVIII resist layer.

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