New Approach for ArFi Extension by Dry Development Rinse Process

ArF lithography is still major process to develop N7/N5 devices. Especially in resist materials, DOF, roughness and CD uniformity are the biggest key parameters in fine pitches. To improve these issues, we newly propose to apply Dry Development Rinse Process (DDRP) & Materials (DDRM) as the ArF extension approach. In EUV lithography, DDRP is already one of the approaches to achieve high resolution. However, the performance of DDRP for ArF lithography was never demonstrated in detail. In this paper, we especially focus to improve DOF, CD uniformity and roughness by applying DDRP for ArF generation. Finally we succeeded to enhance every parameter at the same time by controlling DDRM etching condition. This new DDRP technology can be the promising approach for ArF extension stages in N7/N5 and beyond.