Resolution improvement and dose reduction in logic and memory applications from low NA to high NA

We present the results of high-NA (0.55 NA) exposure using dry resist for various use cases such as aligned T2T structure, logic metal PnR (place and route) and memory bit-line-periphery (BLP) - storage node landing pad (SNLP) DRAM structures. In single exposure, we successfully print dark field metal logic PnR down to P20 nm, with T2T CD ~ 19 nm and LCDU 3σ ~ 4 nm. For dark field regular T2T structure, a LCDU 3σ of ~ 3.5 nm is demonstrated for P28 nm T2T CD ~ 13 nm, while for P20 LCDU 3σ of ~ 3.8 nm is achieved for T2T CD ~ 16 nm. For the memory DRAM use case, we demonstrate patterning of BLP and SNLP in a single EUV exposure at pitch 28 nm having dose reduced by ~40% with respect to 0.33 NA P34 nm single exposure. We also demonstrate the on-wafer depth of focus (DoF) increase by pupil optimization. Our results indicates that the high NA single exposure can be a potential solution to replace complex multipatterning technology.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-04-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3051512
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Semiconductor materials and devices
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.73
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article

Resolution improvement and dose reduction in logic and memory applications from low NA to high NA

Kurt Ronse, Sandip Halder, Van Tuong Pham, Chenrong Gong et al.
1 citations
Semiconductor materials and devices
0.73
article

Resolution improvement and dose reduction in logic and memory applications from low NA to high NA

Kurt Ronse, Sandip Halder, Van Tuong Pham, Chenrong Gong, Philippe Leray, Haider Ali, Geert Vandenberghe, Víctor M. Blanco Carballo, Pieter Vanelderen, Marcus Newman, Kaushik Sah, Baolei Cheng, Joern-Holger Franke, Matt Gallagher, Philippe Foubert, Werner Gillijns, Shruti Jambaldinni, Andrew Cross, John S. Petersen, Anuja De Silva, Zhijin Chen, Shubhankar Das, V. Ramanathan, Jeonghoon Lee, Hyo Seon Suh
article en
1 citations

Abstract

We present the results of high-NA (0.55 NA) exposure using dry resist for various use cases such as aligned T2T structure, logic metal PnR (place and route) and memory bit-line-periphery (BLP) - storage node landing pad (SNLP) DRAM structures. In single exposure, we successfully print dark field metal logic PnR down to P20 nm, with T2T CD ~ 19 nm and LCDU 3σ ~ 4 nm. For dark field regular T2T structure, a LCDU 3σ of ~ 3.5 nm is demonstrated for P28 nm T2T CD ~ 13 nm, while for P20 LCDU 3σ of ~ 3.8 nm is achieved for T2T CD ~ 16 nm. For the memory DRAM use case, we demonstrate patterning of BLP and SNLP in a single EUV exposure at pitch 28 nm having dose reduced by ~40% with respect to 0.33 NA P34 nm single exposure. We also demonstrate the on-wafer depth of focus (DoF) increase by pupil optimization. Our results indicates that the high NA single exposure can be a potential solution to replace complex multipatterning technology.

IMEC (BE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 29%
Semiconductor materials and devices
0.73
DOISourceOpenAlex
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