Are extreme ultraviolet resists ready for the 32 nm node?

The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) insertion point of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is the 32 nm half-pitch node, and significant worldwide effort is being focused toward this goal. Potential road blocks have been identified and are being addressed. Readiness of EUV photoresists is one of the risk areas. According to the ITRS (www.itrs.net), a production-worthy EUV resist at 32 nm half-pitch has to have a photospeed of ∼ 5 mJ ∕ cm 2 and line edge roughness ( 3 σ ) of 1.4 nm . Toward this goal, the joint INVENT activity (AMD, CNSE, IBM, Micron, and Qimonda) at Albany has evaluated a broad range of EUV photoresists on various EUV exposure tools worldwide, including EUV MET at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, EUV MET at SEMATECH Albany, and EUV interferometer at the Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland. This article will give a survey of the results, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of current materials.