Synthesis and Combinatorial Optimization of Novel Star-Shaped Resist Materials for Lithographic Applications

Gordon Earle Moore predicted in the mid-1960s the cost-efficient doubling of transistors’ number on integrated circuits every two years – known as Moore’s Law. Leading companies orientates by the development of integrated circuits on this Moore’s Law and contributed to this prediction to come true up to the present. In so doing, the semiconductor industry drafts every two years aims to fulfill this prediction summarized in the so-called International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). The ITRS lists guidelines for cost-effective progresses in performance of integrated circuits, e.g. design of integrated circuits, advancements of exposure tools and exposure techniques, and closely correlated resist materials. This thesis deals with the development of new resist materials and their combinatorial investigation concerning the performance in lithographic patterning. The lithographic patterning procedure is a sequence of multiple processing steps and thus this procedure involves many processing variables interacting strongly with each other. For understanding and comprehensive investigation of such multi-variable dependent systems the development and implementation of combinatorial approaches were in the focus of this thesis. Furthermore this thesis is focused on the synthesis of new tailored resist materials for lithographic patterning. Star topology was the selected polymer architecture of this new resist material realized via the core-first atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) technique. The lithographic performance of electron beam lithography patterning was investigated for the resulting randomly distributed star terpolymers and star block copolymers by combinatorial libraries in view of features’ quality. The first chapter deals with developed, adapted, and improved combinatorial techniques for thin film investigations in general and utilized for lithographic patterning investigations in particular. The lithographic patterning procedure of chemically amplified resist systems consists of various steps: film preparation, post apply bake (PAB) to remove residual solvent, exposure, post exposure bake (PEB) to activate the catalytic reaction, and development. For this rather complex process variable gradients were developed and adapted for each processing step to investigate and optimize the performance of especially new resist systems. For the film preparation a method was developed to prepare an internal material composition gradient. This was realized by a gradient extrudate prepared using two individual controllable syringe pumps and subsequent doctor-blading. The material composition gradient was verified by high performance liquid chromatography. The second (PAB) and also the fourth (PEB) processing step are both annealing processes of the resist film although they serve different purposes. For the investigation of such annealing processes temperature gradients were prepared adjustable in temperature range and temperature slope. This adjustability is ensured by the active heating and the active cooling source and also by the gap and the type of metal plate. For the third step exposure methods were developed to realize defined exposure dose gradients in very small areas of the resist film. Different exposure dose gradients were designed for photolithography as well as for electron beam lithography. For the latter case this dose gradient was programmed in the pattern design using the software which controls the electron beam during the exposure process. The dose gradient for photolithography investigations was realized by a special designed shadow mask. For the last processing step development a preliminary screening of the dissolubility conditions of the resist film was established utilizing quartz crystal microbalances. Based on this measured dissolubility behavior the time frame was set for development time gradients performed by a stepwise or continuously immersion of the resist films. Lastly two to three variable gradients were combined to binary or ternary combinatorial libraries, respectively. The ternary combinatorial libraries allow the investigation of three variables of the lithographic patterning process in one experiment. Thus it is possible to optimize a resist material system fast and efficiently in respect to resist performance. In the second chapter a star-shaped teroligomer is reported as new high potential resist type for lithographic patterning purposes. The polymerization was carried out via the core-first ATRP route using a functionalized saccharose with eight initiating sites as core. Four star-shaped teroligomers were synthesized with varying target arm lengths. In addition a saccharose molecule was synthesized with an average number of 3.5 initiating sites and thus a star oligomer was realized with a reduced arm number but an identical core and similar arm length. As reference resist material a linear model oligomer was synthesized using ethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate as initiator. For all polymers narrow monomodal distributions were detected with polydispersity index values of lower than 1.1. Based on calibration polymerizations runs the monomer feed of the three used monomers was adapted to achieve targeted monomer incorporations for all teroligomers. The targeted monomer incorporation was copied from a currently industrially used linear teroligomer. One star oligomer was selected as proof of principle for the utilization of the star architecture for lithographic purposes. This new resist material was combinatorial investigated in a ternary library and thus optimized in one experiment concerning exposure dose, PEB temperature, and development time. The optimized patterns with a feature size of 100 nm and an excellent line edge roughness (LER) value of 3.1 nm were observed. The last chapter of this thesis demonstrates the straight forward advancement of the star-shaped resist material reported in chapter two. The statistical monomer incorporation was exchanged by the introduction of the tailored star block copolymer architecture. This architecture was synthesized for the first time via the core-first ATRP route by full conversion of a first polar monomer and in-situ polymerization of additionally added nonpolar monomer. The successful syntheses were indicated by contact angle measurements showing increased hydrophobicity of star block copolymers in contrast to random star copolymers with the same monomer incorporation. The star block copolymers exhibited also enhanced dissolubility behavior characterized by quartz crystal microbalance measurements. Furthermore they demonstrated an up to eight times increased sensitivity at their lithographic application in contrast to the synthesized reference linear copolymer. The most promising star block copolymer was selected to investigate its lithographic performance. The optimization was performed in a ternary combinatorial library based on the gradient variables exposure dose and feature size, PEB temperature, and development time. The optimized pattern of clear lines and a feature size of 66 nm was observed with a LER value of 6 nm. To conclude, different tailored star-shaped terpolymers were synthesized using the ATRP core-first route and successfully applied in the lithographic patterning process for the first time. In addition the combinatorial optimization offers the absolutely promising potential of utilizing these star shaped resist materials by the demonstrated brilliant LER values, the achieved extremely high sensitivity, and the fast and efficient development of clear 66 nm lines.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Bayreuth

Year

2012

Author dc:creator

• Wieberger, Florian

Contributors dc:contributor

• Schmidt, Hans-Werner

Repository record source_url

https://epub.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/186/

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:epub.uni-bayreuth.de:186