Paper
2 April 2011 The comparison of NGLs from a tool vendor's view
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
As the conventional optical lithography reaches its limit, we are now facing a huge paradigm shift to NGL schemes. There exist several candidates, such as Double Patterning, EUV and Nanoimprint, but they have their own new unconventional technical issues. This paper compares these NGL technologies from an exposure tool vendor's view. For double patterning, overlay is the biggest issue, and reticle heating effect by exposure light gives time dependent and non-linear distortion. As the reticle pattern area is protected with a pellicle, its direct cooling is difficult. The systematic optimization of reticle and lens heating is necessary to reduce the non-linear distortion. Though EUVL is now going to be applied to pre-production, technical issues still need a big leap. For a tool vendor, the extendibility to the resolution beyond 20nm is important. It forces us to use higher NA optics and off-axis illumination. In addition to the well-known mask, source and resist challenges, wavefront and vibration control would be the key issues for exposure tools. Nanoimprint is the last candidate for volume-production for memory application. It can offer the proven fine resolution and good pattern fidelity. The technology matching between nanoimprint technology and the exposure tool is very critical, because the imprint procedure means direct contacts between a tool and a wafer. The fundamental analysis leads us to find a view to cope with the basic issues of such contacts.
© (2011) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Akiyoshi Suzuki "The comparison of NGLs from a tool vendor's view", Proc. SPIE 7970, Alternative Lithographic Technologies III, 797005 (2 April 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.881274
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Cited by 6 scholarly publications.
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KEYWORDS
Reticles

Nanoimprint lithography

Distortion

Extreme ultraviolet lithography

Double patterning technology

Photomasks

Semiconducting wafers

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