Ultra-high carbon fullerene-based spin-on-carbon hardmasks

Fullerene-based spin-on-carbon enables very high carbon content, and shows very high thermal stability, and etch resistance approaching amorphous carbon. Here we describe the performance of the HM1300 fullerene SOC, including results using high temperature inert atmosphere curing. Ohnishi numbers below 1.44 are achieved (measured by elemental analysis) and etch performance improved over the standard bake. A new high carbon crosslinker, designed to link directly to the fullerene cage, and with a carbon content comparable to the fullerene (significantly higher than the previous crosslinker) is also introduced. The new crosslinker is designed to enhance both etch and thermal stability performance.