Light-curable underlayers for non-baking process in EUV lithography

Underlayer materials account for the majority of electricity consumption in the lithography process because all tracks need to maintain a high temperature not only during the process time but also throughout the entire operational period. In this study, we propose a novel method that deviates from the conventional approach of utilizing thermoplastic materials as the underlayers for crosslinking, instead advocating for the use of light source for the crosslinking process, which potentially leads to reduced electricity consumption. Furthermore, some studies have shown that light-curable materials exhibit a higher degree of crosslinking compared to thermally cured materials, which implies that better crosslinking may provide better lithography performance. We evaluated light-curable materials based on the thermoplastic underlayers used in conventional EUV lithography.