Argon ion implantation has been investigated as a means of achieving resist stabilization, such that a second resist layer may be patterned without attacking the 1st layer. The viability of such an approach has been investigated for double printing. Potential benefits include resist feature shrinkage and Line Width Roughness (LWR) improvements. Line shrinkage benefits the lithographic process window as features can be printed larger, while improvements in LWR, is a further valuable attribute. We report on the role played by ion implant dose, its impact on both lateral and vertical resist shrinkage, LWR as well as its impact on organic BARC reflectivity. The performance of such masks during dry etching of a gate layer has been additionally evaluated.

Date Published: 7 March 2008
PDF: 13 pages
Proc. SPIE 6924, Optical Microlithography XXI, 69242B (7 March 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.774051

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6924:
Optical Microlithography XXI
Harry J. Levinson; Mircea V. Dusa, Editor(s)