KEYWORDS: Critical dimension metrology, Transmission electron microscopy, Optical lithography, System on a chip, Etching, Polymethylmethacrylate, Cadmium, Scanning electron microscopy, Lithography, Directed self assembly
Directed Self Assembly (DSA) of Block Co-Polymers (BCP) has become an intense field of study as a potential patterning solution for future generation devices. The most critical challenges that need to be understood and controlled include pattern placement accuracy, achieving low defectivity in DSA patterns and how to implement this process as a patterning solution. The DSA program at imec includes efforts on these three major topics. Specifically, in this paper the progress for the templated DSA flow within the imec program will be discussed. An experimental assessment is made based on a 37 nm BCP pitch material. In particular, the impact of different process options is illustrated, and data for CD and placement accuracy of the DSA holes in their template is provided.
KEYWORDS: System on a chip, Scanning electron microscopy, Optical lithography, Etching, Photomasks, Thin film coatings, Coating, Metrology, Materials processing, Directed self assembly
Directed Self-Assembly (DSA) of Block Co-Polymers (BCP) has become an intense field of study as a potential patterning
solution for future generation devices. The most critical challenges that need to be understood and controlled include
pattern placement accuracy, achieving low defectivity in DSA patterns and how to make chip designs DSA-friendly. The
DSA program at imec includes efforts on these three major topics. Specifically, in this paper the progress in setting up
flows for templated DSA within the imec program will be discussed. A process has been implemented based on a hard
mask as the template layer. In this paper primarily the impact of local pattern density and BCP film thickness on the
templated DSA process are discussed. The open hole rate and the placement accuracy of BCP patterns within the template
are the primary figures of merit.
We study the effects of noise in scanning electron microscope (SEM) images on the size and roughness of contact holes when they are measured using top-down SEM images. The applied methodology is based on the generation of synthesized top-down SEM images, including several model contact edges with controlled roughness, critical dimension (CD) uniformity, and noise. The sources of image noise can be the shot noise of SEM electron beams and microscope electronics. The results show that noise reduces CD and correlation length while it increases the rms value of contact edge roughness (CER). CD variation is increased with noise in images with smooth and identical contacts, whereas it remains almost unaltered in images including rough contacts with CD nonuniformity. Furthermore, we find that the application of a noise-smoothing filter before image analysis rectifies the values of CD (at small filter parameter) and of rms and correlation length (at larger filter parameters), whereas it leads to marginally larger deviations from the true values of CD variation. Quantitative assessment of the model predictions reveals that the noise-induced variations of CD and CER values are less important compared with those caused by process stochasticity and material inhomogeneities.
The aim of this work is to study the effects of noise on the parameters characterizing the size and roughness of contact
edges when they are measured by the analysis of top-down SEM images. The applied methodology is based on the
modelling of rough contact edges with controlled roughness parameters and the generation of synthesized top down
SEM images with several contact edges and a distribution of Critical Dimension (CD) values (CD nonuniformity). The
sources of noise can be the shot noise of SEM electron beam (Poisson-type) and the microscope electronics (Gaussiantype).
First, we check out the validity of the model and then we apply it to evaluate the effects of noise in synthesized
SEM images with smooth and images with rough contact edges. The results show that in all cases, noise lowers CD and
correlation length while it increases the rms value. CD variation is increased with noise in images with smooth and
identical contacts whereas it remains almost unaltered in images including rough contacts with CD nonuniformity.
Furthermore, we find that the application of a noise smoothing filter before image analysis is able to rectify the values of
CD (at small filter parameter) and of rms and correlation length (at larger filter parameters), whereas it leads to larger
deviations from the true values of CD variation. Quantitative assessment of the model predictions reveals that the noise
induced variations of CD and CER values are inferior to those caused by process stochasticity and material
inhomogeneities.
One of the main challenges for developing EUV resists is to satisfy sidewall roughness to allowable limit. With
concern of this challenge, in this paper we study the effects of PAG and sensitizer concentration on the CD variation
and roughness of contact holes in a EUV resist for a range of exposure doses by applying an advanced
characterization methodology. It is found that the contact edge roughness(CER) parameters(RMS,ξ) merge when
they are plotted versus the final CD value revealing the critical role of contact CD in the dependence of CER on
PAG and sensitizer. This finding means that for specific target CD, different PAG and sensitizer concentrations
modify only slightly contact edge roughness parameters. Power spectrum analysis reveals the importance of low
frequency edge undulations in RMS dependence on CD. In addition, we found that CD Variation increase with
sensitizer concentration.
In this paper, we present a methodology for the characterization of Contact Edge Roughness (CER) using top-down
SEM images and an algorithm for the generation of model contact edges with controlled roughness as well as
synthesized SEM images with CER. The characterization methodology is applied to the determination of the effects of
exposure dose on the amplitude and frequency parameters of the CER of an EUV resist, while the model edges are used
for understanding the results and connecting RMS to CD variation. Experiments show us that the RMS value of CER
decreases as dose decreases contrary to what happens to LER/LWR. Modeling shows that RMS decreases and CD
variation increases as the sampled edge length is decreased, in agreement with LER/LWR. Thus, modelling may offer an
explanation of the RMS reduction with reduced dose: Indeed, decrease of dose causes reduction of Critical Dimension
(CD) (i.e. diameter) of the hole and therefore reduction of its circumference (i.e. measurement edge length), which in
turn causes reduction of RMS and increase in CD variation.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.