Because the pattern pitch is getting smaller and smaller, the pattern collapse issue in the lithography process have been getting the sever problem. Especially, pattern collapse is one of the main reasons for minimizing of process margin at fine pitch by EUV lithography. The possible major cause of pattern collapse is the surface tension of the rinsing liquid and the shrinkage of resist pattern’s surface in the process of drying the rinsing liquid. The influence of surface tension for very small pitch pattern is particularly severe. The one of the most effective solution for this problem is thinning of the resist film thickness, however this method is reaching to its limits in terms of substrate etching process anymore. The tri-layer resist process or hard mask processes have been used, but there is a limit to the thinning of resist film and there is no essential solution for this problem. On the other hand, the supercritical drying method has been known as an ultimate way to suppress the pattern collapse issue. The supercritical drying method is a dry process advanced to the vapor phase from the liquid phase via supercritical, and the supercritical drying method can dry the rinsing liquid without making the vapor-liquid coexistence state. However, this process is not applied to the mass production process because it requires the introduction of the special equipment. We newly developed the novel process and material which can prevent the pattern collapse issue perfectly without using any special equipment. The process is Dry Development Rinse Process (DDRP), and the material used in the process is Dry Development Rinse Material (DDRM). DDRM is containing the special polymer which can replace the exposed and developed part. And finally, the resist pattern will be developed by Dry etching process without any pattern collapse issue. In this paper, We will discuss the approach for preventing the pattern collapse issue in PTD and NTD process, and propose DDRP and DDRM as the solution.

Date Published: 29 March 2013
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8682, Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXX, 868205 (29 March 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2011511

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8682:
Advances in Resist Materials and Processing Technology XXX
Mark H. Somervell, Editor(s)