EUV extendibility via dry development rinse process

Abstract

Conventional photoresist processing involves resist coating, exposure, post-exposure bake, development, rinse and spin drying of a wafer. DDRP mitigates pattern collapse by applying a special polymer material (DDRM) which replaces the exposed/developed part of the photoresist material before wafer is spin dried. As noted above, the main mechanism of pattern collapse is the capillary forces governed by surface tension of rinse water and its asymmetrical recession from both sides of the lines during the drying step of the develop process. DDRP essentially eliminates these failure mechanisms by replacing remaining rinse water with DDRM and providing a structural framework that support resist lines from both sides during spin dry process. Dry development rinse process (DDRP) eliminates the root causes responsible for pattern collapse of photoresist line structures. Since these collapse mechanisms are mitigated, without the need for changes in the photoresist itself, achievable resolution of the state-of-the-art EUV photoresists can further be improved.