Surface treatment method for dielectric anti-reflective coating (DARC) to shrink photoresist critical dimension (CD)

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United States of America Patent

PATENT NO 9880473
APP PUB NO 20170371247A1
SERIAL NO

15189296

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Abstract

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A KrF (248 nm) photoresist patterning process flow is disclosed wherein photoresist patterns having a sub-100 nm CD are formed on a dielectric antireflective coating (DARC) thereby lowering cost of ownership by replacing a more expensive ArF (193 nm) photoresist patterning process. A key feature is treatment of a DARC such as SiON with a photoresist developer solution that is 0.263 N tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) prior to treatment with hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) in order to significantly improve adhesion of features with CD down to about 60 nm. After the HMDS treatment, a photoresist layer is coated on the DARC, patternwise exposed, and treated with the photoresist developer solution to form a pattern therein. Features that were previously resolved by KrF patterning processes but subsequently collapsed because of poor adhesion, now remain upright and intact during a subsequent etch process used to transfer the sub-100 nm features into a substrate.

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Patent Owner(s)

  • HEADWAY TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

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Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Haq, Jesmin Milpitas, US 35 192
Zhong, Tom Saratoga, US 62 1339

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