VLSI Technology

Lecture 12
Devesh Chandra
Guest Faculty
MNIT Jaipur
Lithography
Introduction & Principles
Optical Lithography
1
Lithography
Introduction
and
Principles
Instruments
&
Lithography
Exposure
System
Optical
Lithography
Electron
Lithography
X- Ray
Lithography
Ion
Lithography
2
Introduction
Why do we need lithography ?
The ability to print patterns with sub-micron
features and to place those patterns on a silicon
substrate with better than 0.1 um precision
The concept is simple
A light sensitive photo-resist is spun onto wafer
forming thin layer on the surface.
The resist is then selectively exposed by shining light
through mask, which contains the pattern information
Resist is then developed which completes pattern
transfer from mask to wafer
The resist may then be used to as mask to etch
underlying films or for ion implantation
3
The concept is simple, but actual
implementation is expensive and very complex
The following aspects are considered in such
systems:- resolution, exposure field, placement
accuracy, throughput , defect density.
Resolution Ever increasing demand for smaller device structures
Exposure Field Ever increasing chip sizes
Placement
accuracy
Mask Layers should be carefully aligned with respect to the
existing patterns already in the wafer
Throughput Competitive nature of semiconductor industry
Defect density - do -
4
Process flow in Optical Lithography System
5
Optical Lithography Process
The patterns which comprises of various layers
in IC are designed using the CAD tool. The
facilities offered these tools are
Can design the chips with multi-million
components
List and design of previous works are available
Routing & wiring is done
DRC
Circuit and system level simulation are possible to
study the performance
6
Once the design is complete, it is transferred to
the fabrication facility
Masks - The information for each mask level is
transferred to mask making machine
Mask machine could be laser pattern generator or
electron beam generator
The pattern of the mask is written on a mask blank
using scanning beam or laser
Mask is made up of fused silica and is covered with a
thin layer (80nm) of Chromium layer and a layer of
photo-resist
Anti reflecting coating is present between chromium
and photo-resist to prevent reflection from the
chrome layer
7
The electron or laser beam exposes the resist,
which is then developed and used as etch mask to
transfer pattern into the chrome
The chrome layer is finally dry / wet etched
Tight dimensional control is maintained
Once the chrome layer is etched, the photo-resist
is removed
The fused silica substrate is highly polished
surface so light is not scattered, when it passes
through the chrome and has small thermal
expansion coefficient.
UV absorption by SiO2 due to trace impurities.
Mask is usually prepared 4 X 5 times larger than
the features actually desired.

8
Lithography System
( Light source)
Higher resolution lithography requires shorter
wavelength photon
Arc Lamps
Hg vapor inside a sealed glass envelope
Two conducting electrodes are separated by several
mm length.
An arc is struck between the electrode by applying
high voltage which ionise the gas (kV), and behaves as
plasma
In this lamp plasma is conducting and consists of ions,
electrons and neutral species
Initial pressure is around 1 atm, but later it increases
to 20-40 atm

9
Light emission occurs due to two process
Black body radiation ( free electrons in the arc). It
is in the deep UV region and mostly absorbed by
glass envelope of the lamp
Emitted light from Hg atoms. This is emitted in UV
range
The complex optical systems are easier to
design if they focus on single wavelength. The
unwanted wavelengths are filtered out.


10
Two commonly used lines are 436 nm (g line)
and 365 nm (i-line).
I line dominated production for the 0.35 um
generation of technology.
New light sources are required for beyond this
resolution
KrF (248 nm)
ArF (193 nm)
These light sources are generated using
excimer laser systems and chemical mix of Kr,
NF3
11
Wafer Exposure System
There are three general class of the optical
wafer exposure tools
Contact , proximity and projection systems

12
Schematic of different types of Wafer
Exposure Systems
13
Contact Printing Proximity Printing Projection Printing
Oldest and simplest
Mask is placed with chrome
side down in direct contact
with resist layer of the wafer
Mask and wafer are
separated by 5 25 um
Mask is separated from
wafer. An optical system is
used to image the mask on
the wafer
Alignment of mask is done
prior to exposure using
microscopes
Can produce high resolution
printing as diffraction effects
are minimized
Separation degrades the
resolution due to diffraction
effects
Resolution is limited by
diffraction effects.
Machine are relatively
inexpensive
Can be used in X Ray
lithograhy
Costly systems
Not suitable for high volume
manufacturing
Hard contact between mask
and resist may damage of
mask and resist layer, hence
high defect densitites
Proximity printing solves the
defect issues
Without defect problems
associated with contact
printing. Suitable for bulk
processing (25 50 ) wafers
per hour.
1X Mask 1 X Mask 4X 5X Mask
14
Optics Basic
Ray Optics and Diffraction
Ray Optics
Wave Optics
Diffraction
15
Simple Diffraction Effect. Light passes through a
narrow aperture. The image formed covers a much
larger area than can be explained by ray tracing
16
Propagation of a plane wave in free space and
through small aperture ( Huygens Fresnel
Principles)
17
Diffraction
Diffraction can be thought as the bending of
the light, when it passes through the aperture
carries with it the information of shape and
size of the aperture. (Example aperture on the
mask to be printed on the resist)
The problem is that information spreads out in
the space because of diffraction and it must
be collected to convey perfect information
about the aperture to the resist

18
Qualitative Example of small aperture being
imaged
19
Because of the finite size of the lens only a
portion of the total light is collected and
focused on the resist.
The figure next shows the actual image
produced by such aperture on the resist.
20
Image Intensity of circular aperture in the image
plane ( Fraunhoffer diffraction pattern). 2D
image
21
Fresnel and Fraunhoffer diffraction
Fresnel Fraunhoffer
It is also called near field diffraction Also known as far field diffraction
The image plane is close to the aperture The image plane is far from the aperture
The light wave travels directly from
aperture to the image plane
No intervening lens Lens is generally placed in between the
aperture and image plane for focus
Contact & Proximity exposure system Projection Systems
22
Resolutions & Imaging
The limit of resolution (or resolving power) is
a measure of the ability of the objective lens
to separate in the image adjacent details that
are present in the object. It is the distance
between two points in the object that are just
resolved in the image.
The resolving power of an optical system is
ultimately limited by diffraction by the
aperture.
23
Resolution
and
Diffraction
Concept
24
For resolution to occur, at least the direct
beam and the first-order diffracted beam
must be collected by the objective. If the lens
aperture is too small, only the direct beam is
collected and the resolution is lost.
25
Consider a grating of spacing d illuminated by light of
wavelength , at an angle of incidence i.
The path difference between the direct beam and the
first-order diffracted beam is exactly one
wavelength, . So,
( d sin i + d sin = ) where 2 is the angle through
which the first-order beam is diffracted. Since the two
beams are just collected by the objective,
i = , thus the limit of resolution is,


26
Numerical Aperture
The numerical aperture of a microscope objective
is a measure of its ability to resolve fine specimen
detail. The value for the numerical aperture is
given by,
Numerical Aperture (NA) = n sin
where n is the refractive index and equal to 1 for
air and is the half angle subtended by rays
entering the objective lens.
Numerical aperture determines the resolving
power of an objective, the higher the numerical
aperture of the system, the better the resolution
27
Low numerical aperture
Low value for a
Low resolution
High numerical aperture
High value for a
High resolution
28
NA and
spread in
Airy Disk
29
When light from the various points of a specimen
passes through the objective and an image is
created, the various points in the specimen appear
as small patterns in the image. These are known as
Airy discs. The phenomenon is caused by
diffraction of light as it passes through the circular
aperture of the objective.
Airy discs consist of small, concentric light and
dark circles. The smaller the Airy discs projected
by an objective in forming the image, the more
detail of the specimen is discernible. Objective
lenses of higher numerical aperture are capable of
producing smaller Airy discs, and therefore can
distinguish finer detail in the specimen.
30
Rayleigh Criterion
The limit at which two Airy discs can be
resolved into separate entities is often called
the Rayleigh criterion. This is when the first
diffraction minimum of the image of one
source point coincides with the maximum of
another.
31
Un-resolvable
Rayleigh
Criterion
Resolvable
32
Fraunhofer Diffraction
Consider the situation when we have two
point sources close together that we are trying
to image. These could be two small adjacent
features on the mask we are trying to print in
the resist on a wafer.
How close together can they be and still be
resolved in the image plane
Image produces by the two point source will
each be an Airy disk.
33
Resolving power of a lens when two point
sources are to be separated in the image
34
R is the resolution of the lens, n is the index of refraction of
the material between object and the lens (1 for air), alpha
is the half of the maximum of the diffracted light that can
enter the lens (acceptance angle of the lens)
NA is the numerical aperture
In lithographic system 0.61 factor is replaced by k1, as 0.61
was derived for point source ,but in real situation the mask
could take any shape. Actual k1 values achieved is 0.6 to 0.8
35
Depth of focus
The effect of the focus on a projection
lithography system is a critical factor in
understanding and controlling lithographic
process
As feature size decreases, their sensitivity to
focus errors increases
DOF can be thought of as the range of the focus
errors that a process can tolerate and still give
the acceptable lithographic results
36
The classic Rayleigh criterion for depth of
focus is based on the visible change in the
image, this change can be insignificant or
catastrophic for microcircuit manufacturing
In lithography, a shift in focus produces two
major changes to the final result:
Photo-resist profile changes
Sensitivity of the process to other processing
errors
37
Images showing the concept of Depth of Focus (DOF)
38
39
Depth of focus decreases as the numerical
aperture increases

40
Contact Printing
41
Proximity Printing
Near Field Fresnel Diffraction
42
Projection Printing
43
Images produced by three types of optical
lithographical tool.
44
Modulation Transfer Function
The modulation transfer function is as name suggest is
a measure of the transfer of modulation ( or contrast)
from the subject to the image. In other words, it
measures how faithfully the lens reproduces (or
transfers) details from the object to the image
produced by the lens.
The Blurring is due to the phenomenon of diffraction.
Diffraction is the fundamental optical limit on the
image quality and resolution that results from wave
nature of light and finite diameter of the lenses.
MTF = (maximum intensity - minimum
intensity)/(maximum intensity + minimum intensity)
45
[A] is the original image
[B] is the image of the test pattern
[C] Line pattern of the original test pattern
[D]The line profile of the image of the test pattern
46
Modulation
and Contrast
Transfer
Function
47
Modulation Transfer Function (MTF)
48
The concept applies to the incoherent
illumination.
Diffraction effects is only important after the light
passes through the mask, the optical intensity
pattern as the light exits the mask will be almost
ideal representation of the mask.
A useful measure of the quality of the image is
the MTF that is defined as formula below.
MTF measures the contrast in the image
produced by the exposure system
49
MTF depends on the feature size in the image.
For large feature size, the resulting image
produced by the exposure system has
excellent contrast and MTF is unit. As the
feature size decreases, diffraction effects
cause the MTF to degrade and to finally reach
zero when the features are so closely spaced
that there is no remaining contrast in the
image.
50
Modulation Transfer Function versus feature size
51
MTF is also affected by the parameter known as
spatial coherence of light source.
An ideal point source produces light in which the
waves are in phase at all points along the emitted
wave-front.
A condenser lens can convert these waves to
plane waves all of which strike mask at exactly
same angle such source are ideal coherent source
As the physical size of the source increases, light
is emitted from volume rather than a point and
waves will not be perfectly in phase everywhere
If the same condenser lens is used to convert
light to plane waves, such sources will be partially
coherent.
52
Example of spatially coherent and
partially coherent light source
53
54
MTF versus feature size. As s increases (more
incoherent source, the MTF degrades for larger
feature size but improves for very small
features)
55
Lithographic
Projection
Lenses
56
Photo-resists
How photo-resist material differs from other materials
?
Interaction of materials with light
Recombination (semiconductor)
Phonon interaction (semiconductors)
Chemical changes
Photo-resist materials are designed to respond to
incident photons by changing their properties when
they are exposed to light. The requirement is to
maintain the latent image of the impinging photons at
least until the resist is developed.
A long lived response to light generally requires the
chemical change.


57
Almost all resist fabricated today are
hydrocarbons, when these materials absorb
light, the energy from photons generally
breaks chemical bonds, after this the material
restructures itself in the another stable form
Positive resist respond to the light by
becoming more soluble in the developer
solution
Negative resist do the opposite. They become
less soluble when they are exposed. Positive
resists are widely used in industry today
58
Photo-resist used today are liquids at room
temperature. They are applied on the wafer by
spinning. The thickness of the photo-resist can be
controlled by controlling the viscosity of the
resist, spin speed. It ranges from 0.6 um to 1um.
Baking step is used to drive off remaining solvent
(Pre-bake)
Developing of the photo-resist is done using
liquid developer on the wafer
Post bake is done after developing to harden the
photo-resist. It improves the ability of the resist
to act as etch mask or ion-implantation mask
Finally after etching or ion-implantation, resist is
removed in oxygen plasma or chemical stripping

59
Photo-resist characteristics
Process compatibility
Sensitivity to light i.e. how much light is required to
expose resist. Higher sensitive lights are desired because
this reduces the exposure time of the resist. Extremely
high sensitive usually is not desired, it tends to make the
material unstable, variations with temperature and effect
of shot noise
g line, i-line resist is having sensitivity of 100mJ/cm
2
and
DUV resists often achieve sensitivities of 20 40 mJ /cm
2
.
Resolution- The quality of resist patterns today is generally
limited by the exposure system and not by resist itself.
Resist function:- The term resist describes the need for
the photo-resist to withstand etching or ion implantation
after the mask pattern is transferred to the wafer
60
g and i line photo-resists
It generally consist of three components, an inactive
resin (base of material), a photoactive compound, and
a solvent.
The most commonly used material for g and i line
resist today are diazonapthoquinones (DNQ) materials
A basis resist is generally novolac, a low molecular
weight phenol-formaldehyde condensation polymer
Novolak-diazoquinone resist have played a crucial role
in the micro-miniaturisation of electronics
They are photographic materials of extremely high
resolution, able to define features as small as 0.25 m.
61
Basic structure of Diazoquinone,
commonly used photoactive
compound in photo-resist
Novolac is a polymer material
consisting of basic
hydrocarbon ring with methyl
groups and 1 OH group
attached
62
The Photoactive in these resists are often
diazonaphthoquinones or DNQ materials. The
photo-active part of the compound is the
portion above SO
2
.
The role of PAC is to inhibit the dissolution of
the resist material in the developer.
These compounds are insoluble in typical
developer and dissolution rate of the resist to
approximately 1-2 nm/sec.
63
Decomposition process occurring in DNQs upon
exposure to light
64
The N
2
molecule is weakly bonded in the PAC and
the first part of the photochemical reaction
involves the breakage of bond.
The PAC structure stabilizes itself by moving
carbon outside of the ring with the oxygen atom
covalently bonded to it (Wolff rearrangement)
The final ketene molecule transform into
carboxylic acid in the presence of water.
This is readily soluble in the TMAH (tetramethyl
ammonium hydroxide or KOH or NaOH). Novolac
material is also soluble in this developer
65
A ketene is an organic compound containing
the >C=O=O functional group.
Ketene is also the name for the >C=O=O
functional group.
Ketene is also a common name for the
compound ethenone. Ethenone is the
simplest ketene molecule where R and R' are
both hydrogen atoms.
This is the typical benzene-ketene reaction
66
Deep UV resists
With shorter wavelength materials have two
significant problems
Wavelengths below i-line DNQ absorbs the
incident wavelength.

67
Mask Engineering
The quality of the aerial image of the can be
enhanced by designing better masks
This is also known as wave-front engineering
There are two methods for this
OPC (Optical Proximity Correction) : Generally we
lost are the high frequency components of the
diffraction pattern. This translates as the rounded
rather than square corners .
PSM (Phase shift masks ) in 1982 by Leveson and
colleagues
68
Optical Proximity Correction
In addition to the finite size of the optical
systems, apertures and lenses in the projection
systems are circular and not rectangular as in the
mask
High frequency components of the diffraction
pattern are lost.
This lost information results in aerial image
which has rounded rather than square corners
Shortening the ends of narrow linear feature
A perfect image on the mask can from diffraction
effect, result in a distorted pattern in the resist
69
Mask Patterns with
and without OPC
[Upper]
The corresponding
aerial image when
OPC used. Dark
lines in the bottom
patterns indicates
difference between
mask and aerial
image in each case
70
Optical Mask attempts to reverse the situation
by having the distorted image on the mask
that is design to produce a perfect image on
the resist.
71
Phase shifting Method
This method involves changing the
transmission characteristics of the mask in
selected areas.
Levenson etal. Suggested the use of phase
shifting techniques to improve the resolution
of the printed aerial image
The limitation of the designing of the desired
pattern on mask by CAD system.
72
Phase shifting
73
In the previous example a periodic mask with
equal lines and spaces (diffraction grating) is
used as the mask.
In the example on the right, a material whose
thickness and index of refraction are chosen
to phase shift the light by exactly 180
o
C is
added to the mask. The thickness of this layer
is given by
74
Lithography
Introduction
and
Principles
Instruments
&
Lithography
Exposure
System
Optical
Lithography
Electron
Lithography
X- Ray
Lithography
Ion
Lithography
75
References
76
Slide Number Reference
57-67 S. M . Sze, VLSI Technology, Tata McGrawHill
3-22, 26, 31, 33-45,
48, 49, 50-55, 68-74
Plummer, Deal Griffin, Silicon VLSI Technology, Prentice Hall
46, 47 http://photo.net/learn/optics/mtf/

24, 25
http://www.doitpoms.ac.uk/tlplib/optical-
microscopy/resolution.php
38 http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm
28,29,30,32 http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/superresolution/diffractio
nbarrier.html
http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/optics/mtfintro.html
56 Microlithography, Science & Technology, Suzuki, Smith, CRC Press