Effect of novel rinsing material and surfactant treatment on the resist pattern performance

Abstract

Surfactant treatments, with SCR101 and EX01, were applied to both line-space and hole patterns in this report. 10% Reduction of line-width roughness and the raise of normalized aspect ratio were observed in line-space patterns after surfactant treatments, compared with those only treated with DI water. From top-view and cross-section images of hole patterns, it was found that bottom scum was eliminated and the contact-edge roughness (CER) was also improved after surfactant treatments. Although 1 to 5% shrinkage of patterns appeared, the depth of focus (DOF) of hole patterns was still increased due to removal of bottom scum. By applying the surfactant treatment, we were able to improve not only line width roughness and collapse margin of line-space patterns, but also CER and DOF of hole patterns.