Simulation of the negative chemical amplification deep-ultraviolet process in integrated circuit fabrication

  • Authors:

  • Ioannis Karafyllidis

  • Affiliations:

  • -

  • Venue:
  • Microelectronic Engineering
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

Chemically amplified resists are able to produce nearly vertical line-edge profiles from low-contrast images, because acid generated upon exposure catalyses a crosslinking reaction during the subsequent post-exposure bake. A three-dimensional model for the chemical amplification process and resist etching has been developed in the framework of this research work. Based on this model, an algorithm for the simulation of the chemical amplification process and resist etching process has been implemented. The final resist profiles produced by this algorithm are in very good qualitative agreement with experimental data, and the dependence of the final resist profile on the post-exposure bake time and the number of crosslinking sites has been successfully reproduced.