Dual-layer inorganic SiON bottom ARC for 0.25-um DUV hard mask applications

Qunying Lin; Alex Cheng; John L. Sudijono; Charles Lin

doi:10.1117/12.350201

11 June 1999 Dual-layer inorganic SiON bottom ARC for 0.25-μm DUV hard mask applications

Qunying Lin, Alex Cheng, John L. Sudijono, Charles Lin

Proceedings Volume 3678, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XVI; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.350201
Event: Microlithography '99, 1999, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

Inorganic SiON BARC has been used widely in I-line lithography and 248nm DUV lithography because of its good photo performance and tunable reflective index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) on specific substrates. Conventional single layer SiON BARC on poly, WSix or Al (TiN) has successfully enhanced CD control. However, when applying single layer SiON BARC on top of oxide hard mask, tight thickness control of hard mask becomes a major issue in order to maintain the substrate reflectivity for good photo performance. Dual layer SiON BARC presented in this paper resolves the issue with wide range of hard mask thickness control. Unlike conventional organic BARC where the absorption is the primary mechanisms and the conventional single layer inorganic BARC where phase shift cancellation is dominant, the dual layer BARC uses both phase shift cancellation and light absorption mechanism. The design of dual layer BARC is that top layer serves as phase shift cancellation layer and bottom layer serves as light absorption layer with high k value. Therefore, with fixed bottom absorption layer, top layer n and k and thickness can be fine tuned to get the best photo performances. The advantages of dual layer SiON BARC are that there is no need for the tight BARC thickness control as in the case of single layer SiON BARC as well as for hard mask thickness control. Since the light is all absorbed by the bottom BARC layer, the periodical phenomena of light passing through transparent hard mask film does not exist. Detail information of setting up dual layer SiON BARC by both simulation and experiment are described here. The comparison between dual layer BARC and single layer BARC shows that smaller swing ratio and tighter CD control can be obtained in the case of dual layer BARC. Similarly, the comparison between dual layer SiON BARC and organic BARC shows that smaller iso-dense bias and better resist profile can be obtained with dual layer SiON BARC.

Citation Download Citation

Qunying Lin, Alex Cheng, John L. Sudijono, and Charles Lin "Dual-layer inorganic SiON bottom ARC for 0.25-μm DUV hard mask applications", Proc. SPIE 3678, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XVI, (11 June 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.350201

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