New Molecular Resist Design for Advanced Patterning

Chemically Amplified Resists (CAR) remain the mainstay technology in Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV). Innovations in the CAR platform has driven improvement in resist performance to meet the industrial demand for cutting-edge lithography. Moving towards the next generation node patterning, the industry relies on the continuous development of resists that can print finer features while reducing pattern roughness and without compromising sensitivity. In DuPont Electronics & Industrial (E&I), the development of EUV resist materials continues to be investigated to mitigate the burden of EUV resist stochastics, as well as to meet RLS and defect specifications. In an effort to mitigate the stochastics originated from existing multicomponent CAR platforms, we have developed a novel class of molecular resist materials. The new design concept provides monodisperse single molecules for imaging that show high dissolution contrast and fine resolution capability. The lithographic evaluation results comprising these materials will be presented. The results of our study demonstrate that with advanced design, there is great potential for the extension of the CAR platform to continue as a leading technology for supporting next-generation EUV lithography.