Outline

Introduction
Microelectronics Processing Clean Rooms
Lithography Photoresists
Pattern Transfer
Masks
E-Beam Lithography

Historical Development and Basic Concepts

Photolithography Electron Light
Gun Source Patterning process consists
Condenser
Lens
of mask design, mask
Focus
Mask fabrication and wafer
Photolithography is the sequence of activities needed for transfer printing.
Deflection
a pre-designed pattern to the surface of a semiconductor wafer. Reduction
Lens

Mask Wafer
CAD System
Uses photosensitive polymer (called photoresist), which is a Layout
Simulation Mask Making Wafer Exposure
Design Rule Checking
resistant
i t t coating
ti usedd to
t register
i t an image
i on the
th desired
d i d surface
f It is convenient to divide the
wafer printing process into three
parts A: Light source, B. Wafer
Features transferred to substrate surface by shining light through Aerial
Image
(Surface) exposure system, C. Resist.
glass plates (called masks).
Aerial image is the pattern of
optical radiation striking the top
The pattern can be registered on a mask, or supplied directly of the resist.
P+ P+ N+ N+
from a computer to a scanning radiation source. N Well P Well
TiN Local
Interconnect Level
(See Chapter 2)
Latent image is the 3D replica
Latent
Image produced by chemical processes
in Photoresist P
in the resist.

Process
Process Sequence
(a) Substrate covered
with silicon dioxide
barrier layer 1) Clean wafer surface
(b) Positive photoresist
bake (get rid of H2O)
applied to wafer
surface RCA clean
(c) Mask in close apply adhesion promoter (HMDS = hexi-methyl-di-silizane)
proximity to surface
2) Deposit photoresist (usually by spin-coating)
(d) Substrate following
resist exposure and 3) Soft bake (or pre-bake) - removes solvents from liquid
development photoresist
(e) Substrate after
etching of oxide layer 4) Exposure (pattern transfer)
(f) Oxide barrier on 5) Development - remove soluble photoresist
surface after resist
removal 6) Post bake (or hard bake) - desensitizes remaining
(g) View of substrate photoresist to light
Resolution determined by the combination of
with silicon dioxide 7) Resist removal (stripping)
1. system 2. resist, 3. processing !
pattern on the surface

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 Yield

Yield for a 10-mask lithographic process The Need for Cleanroom

Electronics fabrication requires a clean

processing environment for lithography.
Goal: minimize dust particles that can
settle on substrates or masks and cause
DEFECTS.
Dust on a mask looks like an opaque
feature; will get transferred to underlying
layers; can lead to short circuits or open
circuits.

Graphic Illustration How Big of a Particle is Tolerable?

Particle 1 may result Example: 0.5 m CMOS technology

in formation of a Lateral Features:
pinhole in underlying
pattern size = 0.5 m
layer.
pattern tolerance = 0.15 m
Particle
P ti l 2 may cause
level-level registration = 0.15 m
a constriction of
current flow in a Vertical Features:
metal runner. gate oxide thickness = 10 nm
field oxide thickness = 20 nm
Particle 3 can lead to
a short between the film thicknesses = 250-500 nm
two conducting junction depths = 50-150 nm
regions.

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 Real Defects Class

Numerical designation taken from maximum

allowable number of particles 0.5 m and larger
per ft3 (English system).
For IC fabrication, a class 100 clean room is
required (about four orders of magnitude lower
than ordinary room air).
For photolithography, class 10 or better is
Human hair on a Masking error due to required.
4MB memory-chip a metallicparticle

Particle Size Distribution Curve Sample Problem

A 300 x 300 mm square substrate is exposed for 1 minute under
laminar flow at 30 m/min. How many dust particles will land on
this substrate in a Class 1000 clean room?

SOLUTION:
1) Class 1000 => 35,000 particles/m3 (from graph)
2) Air flow volume over wafer/min = 30 m/min (0.3m x
0.3m) = 2.7 m3
3) # of particles = 35,000 x 2.7 = 94,500!!!

If each of these causes a defect, we are in serious trouble!

Sulfuric Acid has the highest number of particles and HF the lowest.
CONTAMINATION NATURE Adhesion of Particles:
1. Van der Waals Forces.
2. Forces due to the formation of an electrical double layer.
PARTICULATES - FILMS -
3. Forces due to capillary action around particle.
CHUNKS OF GRANULAR ATOMIC, IONIC OR
4. Chemical bond between the particle and the surface.
MATTER POLYMERIC
Particle removal mechanisms
DUST from abrasion grinding
1. Dissolution.
and handling. ORGANIC INORGANIC
2 Oxidizing degradation and dissolution.
2. dissolution
INORGANIC GRIT-abrasive Resist residues Metal layers
3. Lift-off by slight etching of the wafer surface.
particles, sand, clay (from air- left by evapora- Ions from resist
4. Electric repulsion between particles.
borne or chemicals). tion of solvents and reagents
H2O2 can oxidize the silicon surface and OH- group (from NH4OH) provide
LINT from clothing, skin, hair - Oil from water Residues from negative charge on silicon.
organic in nature, bacteria and etc. and handling. reagents, and The deposition of particles is a strong function of pH values of the solution.
handling With increasing pH value above 10 results in low particle deposition (SC-1
have the highest removal efficiency).

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 IBM 300 mm FAB IBM 300 mm FAB wet clean

IBM 300 mm FAB mask clean Outline

Introduction
Clean Rooms
)Photoresist
Pattern Transfer
Masks
E-Beam Lithography

Photoresist Photoresist (2)

Photosensitive polymer compound that either gets more
or less soluble when exposed to light.
Spun onto wafers and prebaked to produce a film of 0.5 to
a few microns thick.
Photolithography labs have yellow light because
pphotoresist is sensitive to wavelengths
g < 500 nm.

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 Positive Optical Resist
Requirements for Photoresists Exposure to radiation leads to breakdown of PAC
Dissolution rate in developer (hydroxide) changes
Adhesion to substrate Without sensitizer 150 /s
Radiation induced solubility change With sensitizer 10-20 /sec
After exposure 1000-2000 /s
Etch resistance
Developabilityin solvent (in aqueous base or Key idea is the differential solubility of about 100:1
other solvent) Negative Optical Resist
Pinhole-free thin films Negative optical resist becomes insoluble in regions
Transparency exposed to light
Photochemical reaction generates cross-linking to form 3D
Easy to Remove molecular network
New structure insoluble in developer (usually an organic
solvent)

Flow chart of a typical resist process

Types
1. Positive: gets more soluble after exposure Substrate
cleaning
Spin
coat
Pre-bake
HMDS
900C
2. Negative: gets less soluble after exposure.

Post
Develop exposure Expose
treatment

1400C

Plasma Post
Etch
de-scum bake

Strip

*Steps in dashed (pink)

lines are not always used

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 Image Reversal

Basic Properties of Resists Basic Properties of Resists

Contrast:

Typical valuesp= 2-3 (Df= 100 mJ/cm2) & n= 1.5, (DUV)= 5-10
(Df= 20-40 mJ/cm2)
Resists with higher contrast result in better resolution because of
Di= threshold exposure energy dose for resist removal or gel dose
Df= exposure energy dose for complete resist removal or complete insolubilization morevertical resist profile

Non-ideal Exposure Critical MTF (CMTF)

CMTF is the minimal MTF value of the optical

system that results in a fully resolved pattern
in the photoresist

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 Other issues in Photoresist Exposure Other issues in Photoresist Exposure

Other issues in Photoresist

Post Exposure Bake
Exposure

Constructive
Destructive
interference
interference

Development

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 Pattern Transfer
Photo Printing Process:
Light sources
Exposure
p techniques
q
Mask engineering

Metrics of Lithography Systems Energy Sources: Waves or Particles

Resolution (smallest dimension) Wavelength Energy Energy sources are
Determined by optical system, resist, etch process required to modify the
Light UV 400 nm 3.1 eV photoresist.
Registration (alignment 3s=1/3 resolution) The energy source is aerial
Determined by optical system Deep UV 250 nm 4.96 eV imaged on the photoresist.
The imaging can be done
Dimensional
e so Control
Co o (dev
(device,
ce, die,
d e, wafer,
w e , lot
o uniformity)
u o y)
EUV 13 50 nm
13-50 25 eV
V by scanning the energy
Determined by optical system, mask, resist, etch process beam or by masking the
energy beam.
Throughput (how many wafers/hour) X-Ray 0.5 nm 2480 eV
Bright sources are usually
Determined by optical system, resist required for high
Particles Electrons 0.62 20 keV
throughput.
Depth of focus (how flat of surface)
Ions 0.12 100 keV
Determined by optical system
Field of view (how large an area to print)
Decreasing feature sizes require
Determined by optical system the use of shorter wavelength.

Mercury Arc Lamp Excimer Lasers

Traditionally Hg vapor lamps have been used which generate many spectral lines
from a high intensity plasma inside a glass lamp.
Electrons are excited to higher energy levels by collisions in the plasma. Brightest sources in deep UV Excimer Wavelength
Photons are emitted when the energy is released. F2 157 nm
ArF 193 nm
i-line (365 nm)
KrF 248 nm
for 0.5, 0.35 um
g-line (435 nm) XeBr 282 nm
Excimer laser etched hair XeCl 308 nm
Mercury xenon arc lamps
h-line (405 nm) XeF 351 nm
Kr + NF3 energy
KrF photon emission CaF2 193 nm
KrCl 222 nm
KrF - (used for 0.25 m, 0.18m, 0.13 m) Cl2 259 nm
Damaged Hg vapor lamp is very dangerous
ArF - (used for 0.13m, 0.09m, . . . )
due to excessive UV irradiation. FF - (used for ??)
(~100 times greater than daily allowable limit)

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 Contact Printing* Proximity Printing
Contact between the resist and mask provides a Small gap (10 50 m) between the wafer and the
resolution of ~1 m. mask.
Drawback: dust particles on the wafer can be
imbedded into mask where mask makes contact with Minimizes mask damage, but
the wafer. Gap results in optical diffraction at feature edges
Imbedded particles cause permanent damage to mask that degrades resolution to 25 m.
and result in defects with each succeeding exposure.
Minimum linewidth (or critical dimension):
* We use this in lab.
CD g

when = wavelength and g = gap

Contact Printer
Projection Printing
Wafer many centimeters from mask
To increase resolution, only small portion of the mask
is exposed at a time.
Small image area is scanned or stepped over the
wafer
f to cover the
h entire
i wafer
f surface.
f
After exposure of one site, wafer is moved to next
site and the process is repeated.
Called step-and-repeat projection, with a Scanner: Projection Printer
demagnification ratio M:1 ~$25 M
Proximity
Printer

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