LITHOGRAPHY- Chapter 5

• Lithography is one of the key processes in the VLSI technology. In this process,
geometric shapes on anglass mask is transferred on to the surface of silicon wafer. The
shapes define the parts of an intergrated circuit such as gate electrodes, contact window,
so on.

• Litography limits the minimum feature size that can be printable on the wafer.

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The chain of image transfer technology

• Patterning process consists of mask

design, mask fabrication and wafer
printing.

• It is convenient to divide the wafer

printing process into three parts A: Light
source, B. Wafer exposure system, C.
Resist.

• Areal image is the pattern of optical

radiation striking the top of the resist.

• Latent image is the 3D replica produced

by chemical processes in the resist.

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 Lithography Steps
To open a window through SiO2

(a) SiO2 growth

(g) SiO2 etch

a) SiO2 growth ( wet or dry oxidation)

b) A polymer photosensitive film is deposited on the surface (having a SiO2 layer grown
previously)
c) Place photmask on the wafer
d) It is exposed to UV light thorugh a mask with the desired geometrical pattern
e) Depending on the type of the photoresist (either exposed or non-exposed ares of the film
becomes removable after the exposure. These parts are removed by a developing
process.
f) Develop photoresist
g) Only open area can now be processed for etching SİO2.
h) After etching, the polymer film remained in the unprocessed regions is removed by using
an appropriate remover.
 Light Sources
• Decreasing feature sizes require the use of shorter wavelength

• Traditionally Hg vapor lamps have been used which generate Typical high-pressure mercury-arc lamp
many spectral lines from a high intensity plasma inside a glass spectrum.
lamp.

• (Electrons are excited to higher energy levels by collisions in

the plasma. Photons are emitted when the energy is released.)

• g line -
• i line - (used for 0.5 µm, 0.35 µm)

• Brightest sources in deep UV are excimer lasers

• KrF - (used for 0.25 µm, 0.18µm, 0.13 µm)

• ArF - (used for 0.13µm, 0.09µm, . . . )
• FF - (used for ??)

• Issues include finding suitable resists and transparent optical components at

these wavelengths.

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 Wafer Exposure Systems

• Three types of
exposure systems
have been used.

• Contact printing is capable of high resolution but has unacceptable defect densities.
• Proximity printing cannot easily print features below a few µm (except for
x-ray systems).

• Projection printing provides high resolution and low defect densities and dominates today.

• Typical projection systems use reduction optics (2X - 5X), step and repeat or step and scan
mechanical systems, print ≈ 50 wafers/hour and cost $10 - 25M.

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 Optics - Basics and Diffraction
• Ray tracing (assuming light travels in straight lines) works well as long as the dimensions are
large compared to wavelength .
• At smaller dimensions, diffraction effects dominate.

a). b).

• If the aperture is on the order of , the light spreads out after passing through the aperture. (The
smaller the aperture, the more it spreads out.)

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 Projection Systems (Fraunhofer Diffraction)
• If we want to image the aperture on an
image plane (resist), we can collect the light
using a lens and focus it on the image.

• But the finite diameter of the lens means

some information is lost (higher spatial
frequency components).

• A simple example is the image

formed by a small circular
aperture (Airy disk).

• Note that a point image

is formed only if ,
or
1.22 lf/d

• Diffraction is usually described in terms of two limiting cases:

• Fresnel diffraction - near field.
• Fraunhofer diffraction - far field.

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 Contact and Proximity Systems (Fresnel Diffraction)
• Contact printing systems operate in the near field or Fresnel diffraction regime.
• There is always some gap g between the mask and resist.

• The aerial image can be constructed by imagining point sources within the
aperture, each radiating spherical waves (Huygens wavelets).
• Interference effects and diffraction result in “ringing” and spreading outside
the aperture.

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• Fresnel diffraction applies when (9)

• Within this range, the minimum resolvable feature size is (10)

• Thus if g = 10 µm and an i-line light source is used, Wmin ≈ 2 µm.

• Summary of wafer printing systems:

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 Sub-Wavelength Lithography

• Beginning in ≈ 1998, chip manufacturers began to manufacture chips with

feature sizes smaller than the wavelength of the light used to expose photoresist.
• This is possible because of the use of a variety of “tricks” - illumination system
optimization, optical pattern correction (OPC) and phase shift mask techniques.

• Advanced optical systems using Kohler illumination and/or off axis

illumination are commonly used today.

• Kohler illumination systems focus the

light at the entrance pupil of the objective
lens. This “captures” diffracted light
equally well from all positions on
the mask.

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 Illumination System Engineering
• Advanced optical systems using Kohler
illumination and/or off axis illumination
are commonly used today.

• Kohler illumination systems focus the

light at the entrance pupil of the objective
lens. This “captures” diffracted light
equally well from all positions on
the mask.
• “Off-axis illumination” also allows
some of the higher order diffracted
light to be captured and hence can
improve resolution.

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 Photoresist type

• Photoresists can be positive or negative

With postive resist, exposed areas are
removed.
With negative resist, non exposed areas are
removed
 Photoresists
• Resists are organic polymers that are spun onto wafers and prebaked to produce
a film ≈ 0.5 - 1 µm thick.

g-Line and i-Line Resists

• Generally consist of 3 components:

• Inactive resin
• Photoactive compound (PAC)
• Solvent - used to adjust viscosity
• After spinning and baking resists ≈ 1:1 PAC and resin.
• Diazonaphthoquinone or DNQ resists are commonly used today for g-line and
i-line resists.

OH CH3 OH CH3

CH2 CH2 CH2

• The base resin is novolac a long chain polymer consisting of hydrocarbon rings
with 2 methyl groups and 1 OH group attached.

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 Photoresists
• The PACs in DNQ resists are often
diazoquinones. The photoactive portion is
above the SO2.
• Diazoquinones are insoluble in typical
developers and reduce the dissolution rate of
unexposed resists to ≈ 1 - 2 nm sec-1.

O O

N2

+ N2

R R

• After exposure to light, the PAC Wolff

Rearrangement
component in DNQ resists undergoes
a transformation (Wolff rearrangement) O O
into carboxylic acid which is soluble
C OH
in the developer (basic solution). C

+ N2 + N2

R R

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 Basic Properties of Resists
• Two basic parameters are used to describe resist properties, contrast and the
critical modulation transfer function or CMTF.

Positive Negative
Resist Resist
1.0 1.0
Fraction of Resist Remaining

• Contrast is defined as
0.75 0.75
Df
0.5 D0 0.5
Df D0

0.25 0.25

0 0
1 10 100 1 10 100
Exposure Dose (log) Exposure Dose (log)

• Typical g-line and i-line resists achieve values of 2 - 3 and Df values of about
100 mJ cm-2. DUV resists have much higher values (5 - 10) and Df values of about
20 - 40 mJ cm-2.

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 Technical Problems
• There are often a number of additional issues that arise in exposing resist.

• Resist is applied as a liquid and hence "flows" to fill in the topography.

Resist thickness may vary across the wafer. This can lead to under or over
exposure in some regions and hence linewidth variations.

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Technical Problems

• Reflective surfaces below the resis can set up

reflections and standing waves and degrade
resolution.
• In some cases an antireflective coating (ARC) can
help to minimize these effects. Baking the resist
after exposure, but before development can also
help.

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 Phase Shifting
• Another approach uses phase shifting to “sharpen” printed images.

Mask

180˚ Phase Shift

Amplitude
of Mask

Amplitude
at Wafer

Intensity
at Wafer

• A number of companies now provide OPC and phase shifting software services.
• The advanced masks which these make possible allow sharper resist images
and/or smaller feature sizes for a given exposure system.

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 Tolerance

• In most IC processes, successive lithography

processes should be made on the same wafer.
Glass masks of each step should be aligned to
previous pattern. d2
In order to avoid error in device definition some
tolerance should be given to the patterns d1

Tolerans = d1 - d2
Typical resist process
Surface cleaning and/or Prepares surface for
dehydration baking photoresist application

Adhesion promoter typically

HMDS Application spun on the wafer

Resist spun on wafer, typically

Resist Application 3000-6000 rpm, forming an
≈ 0.5 µm resist layer

Pre-bake resist Typically 10 - 30 min @

90 - 100 ˚C

Typically aligned at each

Align wafer, exposure site, exposed at
expose resist 150 mJ cm-2

Sometimes used to minimize

Post exposure bake standing waves in resist
Typically 10 min @ 100˚C

Typically 30 - 60 sec @ room T

Resist develop
using spray or immersion

Typically 10 - 30 min @
Post-bake resist
20 100 - 140 ˚C
 Lithography types
Lithography techniques :

• Optical lithography (UV, deep UV)

• Electron Beam Lithography
• x-ray lithography
• Ion beam lithography

Electron Beam Lithography

Advantages :

• Sub micron patterns can be formed. Feature size can

be as small as 10 nm.

• Wafers can be patterned directly without a mask

• It can be used for imaging simultaneously

Disadvantages :

• Very slow
• It is not economical
 Resolution of Electron Beam Lithography

Resolution of electrn beam lithography is

set by three three factors :

1. Scattering of primary beam as they

penetrate .This is negligable at high
energies (>50 keV)
2. Back scattering of electrons from the
substrate. This is not very important
for isolated features
3. Secondary electrons created during
the passage of the primary eelctron
beam