Improvement in 193 nm Photoresists Performance by 172 nm VUV Curing

概要

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In order to make the enhancement of dry etching durability of methacrylate-based ArF resists induced by VUV curing consistent with low film shrinkage, i.e., less CD deviation, characteristics of several methacrylate-based polymers were studied. It was found that the film shrinkage mainly depended on the side chain structures and polymers containing acrylate group in main chain and norbornane lactone group in side chain portion showed dry etching resistance equal to commercially available KrF resists with lower film shrinkage than methacrylate-based ArF resists by VUV curing and suitable for the process. Curing reaction mechanism of methacrylate-based polymers were also studied using an infrared micro spectrometry with gradient shaving preparation. It was confirmed that the linkage radiolysis around carbonyl sites, mainly lactone portion of methacrylate-based ArF resist polymers induced by 15sec VUV light irradiation proceeded from the film surface to the interface with the substrate. VUV curing less than 1 minute was noticed to be effective for improvement in methacrylate-based ArF resists performance and might be met with the process tact time required for mass production phase.
The Society of Photopolymer Science and Technology (SPST)の論文