Process and materials compatibility considerations for introducing novel extreme ultraviolet resists in a fab: a guide for academia and entrepreneurs

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is critical for manufacturing chips at the most advanced technology nodes. Like every new technology, EUV lithography has challenges of its own. One of the major challenges is developing a suitable EUV photoresist. Efforts are being made to find suitable EUV resist materials. To find a high-performing EUV resist, one of the puzzles to solve is to unravel the EUV–matter interaction mechanism. This knowledge gap has sparked an unprecedented interest in EUV resist research among academia. Despite having novel ideas, most researchers struggle to introduce their resist into an advanced fab, i.e., a facility where all the industrial-scale equipment for chip-making is present. The primary cause is the complicated and often nonharmonized protocols that are in place for contamination control and safety compliance. With this paper, we have tried to fill this gap as much as possible by lining out the details of the pre-requisites needed for novel material introduction in a fab. It can serve as a general guideline for a researcher outside the semiconductor industry to understand the fab processes and protocols for introducing new EUV resist materials in the fab.