KEYWORDS: Optical alignment, Signal detection, Electron beam lithography, Electron beams, Metals, Silicon, Signal to noise ratio, Microscopes, Signal processing, Lithography
Electron beam direct wring lithography has been an indispensable approach by which all sorts of novel nano-scale devices include many kinds optical devices can be fabricated. Alignment accuracy is a key factor especially to those devices which need multi-level lithography. In addition to electron beam lithography system itself the quality of alignment mark directly influences alignment accuracy. This paper introduces fundamental of alignment mark detection and discusses some techniques of alignment mark fabrication along with considerations for obtaining highly accurate alignment taking JBX5000LS and JBX6300FS e-beam lithography systems for example.
The fundamental of alignment mark detection is expounded first. Many kinds of factors which can impact on the quality of alignment mark are analyzed including mark materials, depth of mark groove and influence of multi-channel process. It has been proved from experiments that material used as metal mark with higher average atomic number is better beneficial for getting high alignment accuracy. Depth of mark groove is required to 1.5~5 μm on our experience. The more process steps alignment mark must pass through, the more probability of being damaged there will be. So the compatibility of alignment mark fabrication with the whole device process and the protection of alignment mark are both need to be considered in advance.
We present a novel diffractive optical element, the quantum dot array diffraction grating (QDADG), used in soft x-ray spectroscopy. Because of its sinusoidal transmission it effectively suppress higher order diffractions, which can improve the precision and SNR of soft x-ray spectroscopy in laser plasma diagnosis. There are, however, many difficulties in the fabrication of a soft x-ray spectroscopy QDADG because of its small dimensions and complex pattern. We propose a hybrid lithography to fabricate a QDADG, including electron-beam lithography and x-ray lithography. The diffraction property of the QDADG is also proved to be consistent with a theoretical prediction using experiments.
A novel diffractive optical element (DOE), quantu-dot-array diffraction grating(QDADG), used in soft X-ray
spectroscopy has been fabricated for the first time. The QDADG, which consists of a large number of quantum dots
distributed on a substrate as sinusoidal function, has many advantages in theory over conventional transmission grating
(TG) in soft X-ray spectroscopy, such as doubtless diffraction efficiency, no higher-order diffraction and no
subordination diffraction maximum, and so on. So, it can be predicted theoretically to improve the precision and Signal
Noise Ratio of soft X-ray spectroscopy in laser plasma diagnosis. But, there are many difficulties in the fabrication of
soft X-ray spectroscopy QDADG because of its much small dimension and complex pattern. In this paper, a combined
lithography was proposed to fabricate QDADG including electron beam lithograph (EBL) and proximity X-ray
lithograph(XRL). The diffraction property of QDADG has also been proved to be consistent with theoretical prediction
from test experiment. In the process of fabrication, because of the thin film substrate of soft X-ray QDADG, the
backscattering of incidence electrons can be effectively restrained in the electron beam lithograph, which can cause
much higher resolution. Without proximity effect correction, QDADG with 250nm minimal unit has been successfully
fabricated. In order to further increase the spectroscopy resolution and dispersion power of QDADG, it is necessary to
carry out proximity effect correction in electron beam lithograph.
Hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) is a kind of inorganic negative-tone resist for electron beam lithography with high pattern resolution of about 5 nm. It is a kind of promising resist used in fabrication of nanostructures such as transmission grating (TG), dots array, and chiral structures. But the poor sensitivity limits the extensive application of HSQ. And the property of HSQ in electron beam lithography is also studied little before. In this paper, from the viewpoint of chemical structure the property of HSQ in electron beam lithography has been proposed and experiments have also been presented with the variety of the exposure dose and development conditions. It is proved by experiments not only the sensitivity and contrast of HSQ but also the influence of proximity effect can be modulated by changing the baking temperature and concentration of developer with the same exposure conditions. 100 nm lines at 200 nm pitch grating patterns with excellent vertical side-wall and line-edge roughness have been achieved in more than 450 nm thickness HSQ layer by increasing the concentration of developer and reducing the baking temperature in combination with optimization of exposure conditions.
The combination of electron beam lithography (EBL) and x-ray lithography (XRL) has been developed to successfully fabricate x-ray transmittive diffractive optical elements (DOE) such as Fresnel zone plates (FZP) and transmittive gratings (TG). In fabrication processes, the master masks of FZP and TG were patterned with high resolution on free standing membranes by EBL and followed by electroplating. Subsequently, the final gold FZP and TG with vertical cross section were efficiently and economically replicated by XRL and electroplating. By using this combined method, FZP based on silicon nitride (SiNx) free standing membrane was achieved with 150 nm width of outermost ring and 6.7 high aspect ratio, due to a novel sandwich resist structure. A series of TG master masks (2000 g/mm, 3333 g/mm, and 5000 g/mm) were fabricated by EBL. Furthermore, final gold TGs with 2000 g/mm and 3333 g/mm were replicated by XRL. The spectrum of 2000 g/mm TG has shown its perfect performance in x-ray spectroscopy.
The Micro-processing & Nano-technology Laboratory at the Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is equipped with a GCA 3600F PG&3696, a JBX 6AII & JBX 5000LS EB, and an ETEC MEBES 4700S EB. For a long time we have been engaged in the research and manufacture on Optical Resolution Enhancement Technology (RET) and E-Beam Direct Writing Technology. In this paper the following technologies will be described: PSM, OPC EBDW,EPC,Match & Mixed Lithography technology. Through the application of RET in optical lithography system, we completed the 0.2 um pattern with the g line and I line light source, which is the necessary preparation for 100nm node with 193nm light source. By means of match & mixed lithography and nanofabrication technology, 20nm-50nm gate CMOS transistor and 100nm gate HEMT are successfully developed.
The use of Alternating phase-shifting mask has been demonstrated to be a most powerful approach to expand resolution limitation and expand the process window of lithography. But the phase conflict problem limits the application of alt-PSM. For dark field alt-PSM, node connection PSM is a feasible method to solve the problem. We investigate the application of this method at 100nm node by simulation with ArF light source. The results prove that alt-PSM with conventional partial coherence illumination can be applied in the manufacturing of random interconnect layer. This method can expand the process window effectively. The program that can achieve the pattern decomposition automatically is also developed. We’re sure that combined with optical proximity effect correction, this multi-exposure technology can fulfill the need of 0.1-μm generation logic IC lithography.
The process of resist is of great importance to the resolution of e-beam direct-writing exposure. ZEP520 is an excellent positive e-beam resist, which has high resolution, high sensitivity, high contrast as well as good dry etch resistance. In this paper, the e-beam exposure process of ZEP520 on Si and GaAs substrates and its application in nanoelectrode-pair and single-electron transistor have been studied. On Si substrate, the contrast, sensitivity and resolution of ZEP520 have been investigated in detail, and the influence of exposure dose and resist thickness on the size of ZEP520 patterns has been discussed. The contrast of 425nm-thick ZEP520 on Si is 2.70. The sensitivity of ZEP520 is <5 μC/cm2. The size of ZEP520 lines and circular holes decreases with exposure dose decreasing and thickness increasing. 70 nm wide lines and 110-nm-diameter dots can be exposed on Si substrate using 110 nm thick ZEP520. The flaws of ZEP520 on GaAs can be eliminated by fore-baking the GaAs substrate; and 130 nm wide lines can be exposed on GaAs using ZEP520. In regard to application, a nanoelectrode-pair with a 60 nm space has been fabricated using ZEP520. And a kind of in-plane singe-electron transistor (SET) has also been fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, which has a 110 nm wide Si Coulomb island and shows Clear Coulomb staircases in Ids from the Ids-Vds characteristics and differential conductance (dIds/dVds) oscillations from the dIds/dVds-Vds characteristics at 2 K.
Some research results in advanced optical lithography, Electron beam lithography, X-ray lithography are introduced in this paper. For advanced optical lithography, optical proximity correction and phase-shift masking (PSM) are studied, and 150nm pattern is achieved by i-line Stepper using transparent PSM. For e-beam lithography, the resist process, proximity effect correction and mix & match technologies are investigated, and 27nm CMOS device is successfully fabricated. The 0.15μm GaAs PHEMT devices are successfully fabricated by employing X-ray lithography.
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