Chapter 5 Lithography

1. Introduction and application.

2. Light source and photomask, alignment.
3. Photolithography systems.
4. Resolution, depth of focus, modulation transfer
function.
5. Other lithography issues: none-flat wafer,
standing wave...
6. Photoresist.
7. Resist sensitivity, contrast and gray-scale
photolithography.
Note: this chapter covers more topics and details than the textbook.
But resolution enhancement
8. Step-by-step techniques
process (phase-shift mask, off-axis
of photolithography.
illumination) and advanced lithographies (electron beam
lithography) will not be covered they will be covered in NE 353
Nanoprobing and lithography.
43: Microfabrication and thin film technology
ctor: Bo Cui, ECE, University of Waterloo; http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~bcui/ 1
ook: Silicon VLSI Technology by Plummer, Deal and Griffin
 History
Historically, lithography is a type of printing technology that is based
on the chemical repellence of oil and water.
Photo-litho-graphy: latin: light-stone-writing.
In 1826, Joseph Nicephore Niepce in Chalon France takes the first
photograph using bitumen of Judea on a pewter plate, developed using
oil of lavender and mineral spirits.
In 1935 Louis Minsk of Eastman Kodak developed the first negative
photoresist.
In 1940 Otto Suess developed the first positive photoresist.
In 1954, Louis Plambeck, Jr., of Du Pont, develops the Dycryl polymeric
letterpress plate.

Lithography stone and mirror-

image print of a map of Lithography press
Munich. for printing maps2 in
 Lithography for art: the print principle
Lithography is a printing process that uses
chemical processes to create an image.
For instance, the positive part of an image
would be a hydrophobic chemical, while the
negative image would be water.
Thus, when the plate is introduced to a
compatible ink and water mixture, the ink
will adhere to the positive image and the
water will clean the negative image.

3
Photolithography for IC manufacturing
In IC manufacturing,
lithography is the single most
important technology.
35% of wafer manufacturing
costs comes from lithography.
The SIA roadmap is driven by
the desire to continue scaling
device feature sizes.
0.7 linear dimension shrink
Figure 5.2 every 3 yr.
Placement/alignment accuracy
1/3 of feature size.

Patterning
process consists
of:
Mask design
Mask
fabrication 4
Figure 5.1 Wafer
 Chapter 5 Lithography

1. Introduction and application.

2. Light source and photomask, alignment.
3. Photolithography systems.
4. Resolution, depth of focus, modulation transfer
function.
5. Other lithography issues: none-flat wafer,
standing wave...
6. Photoresist.
7. Resist sensitivity, contrast and gray-scale
photolithography.
8. Step-by-step process of photolithography.

343 Microfabrication and thin film technology

tructor: Bo Cui, ECE, University of Waterloo 5
tbook: Silicon VLSI Technology by Plummer, Deal and Griffin
 Light source: mercury
arc
Traditionally Hg vapor lamp
lamps have been used which generate many
spectral lines from a high intensity plasma inside a glass lamp.
Electrons are excited to higher energy levels by collisions in the plasma,
and photons are emitted when the energy is released. (electron effective
temperature 40000K in a plasma!! )
g line =436 nm
i line =365 nm
(used for 0.5m and
0.35m lithography
generation)

High pressure Hg-vapor lamps

Order $1000, lasts 1000 hours.

Filters can be used to limit exposure wavelengths.

Intensity uniformity has to be better than several % over the
collection area. 6
Needs spectral exposure meter for routine calibration due to
 Light source: excimer
laser
Decreasing feature size (to <0.35m)
requires shorter .
Brightest sources in deep UV are
excimer lasers.
Excimer laser:
In excimer lasers, two elements, e.g. a
noble gas and a halogen (from a
halogen containing compound), which
can react and bind together only in
the excited state but not in their
ground states, are present.
Providing energy will therefore drive
the reaction, creating the excimer.
When the excitation energy is
removed, the excimer dissociates and
releases the energy at the Eximer = Excited dimer
characteristic wavelength. Xe* + Cl2 XeCl* + Cl
A pulsed excitation is used to repeat XeCl* XeCl + DUV
Kr NF
the KrF
3 energy
process. photon emission DUV = deep UV, 308nm for
XeCl laser
XeCl Xe + Cl
KrF = 248 nm (used for 0.25m lithography generation)
ArF = 193 nm (currently used for 45nm node/generation 7
Here * means excited state
 Light sources: summary

CD: critical dimension

e: the numbers in the two tables are different, so they must be for different8 syste
 Photomask
Types:
Photographic emulsion on soda lime
glass (cheap).
Fe2O3 on soda lime glass (no longer in
use?).
Cr on soda lime glass and on quartz
glass (most popular).
(Quartz has low thermal expansion
coefficient and low absorption of light, but
more expensive; needed for deep UV
lithography).
Transparency by laser printer, more and
more popular for MEMS (resolution
down to few m with a 20000 dpi
printer, very cheap).

Polarity:
Light-field, mostly clear, drawn feature Light-field photomask
is opaque.
Dark-field, mostly opaque, drawn
9
feature is clear.
 Pellicle on a reticle (IC word for mask)
Pellicle film

Chrome pattern
Frame

Reticle

The particle on the pellicle

surface is outside of optical
focal range.
Antireflective coatings Pellicle film
Depth of focus Chrome pattern

Mask material

Pellicle: (used only for IC manufacturing where yield is important)

A thin coating of transparent material similar to Mylar is stretched over a
cylindrical frame on either side of the mask.
The frame stands off the membrane at a distance of 1 cm from the
surface of the mask.
Purpose of pellicle is to ensure that particle that fall in the mask are kept
10
Photomask (Cr pattern on quartz) fabrication
Laser beam writing:
Similar to photolithography, but use a focused laser
beam.
It is a direct-write technique - no mask is needed.
Resolution down to a few 100nm, cheaper than electron-
beam writing.

(Cr is 100nm thick)

Remove the resist. 11
Photomask fabrication by electron beam lithograph

quartz

12. Finished 12
 Mask fabrication by photo-reduction
(demagnification)
Minimum feature size
1-5m

This is similar to photography, where image is reduced onto the negative film.
13
Mask fabrication by photo-
reduction

The beginning artwork

is huge (close to 1 meter)
that can be made easily
by printing, the final
photomask is only order 1
inch with m feature size
on it.
14
 Mask to wafer alignment
3 degrees of freedom between mask Alignment mark on wafer
and wafer: x, y, (angle) created from prior
Use alignment marks on mask and processing step.
wafer to register patterns prior to
exposure.
Modern steppers use automatic
pattern recognition and alignment
systems, which takes 1-5 sec to align
and expose. Alignment mark on mask,
Normally requires at least two open window in Cr through
alignment mark sets on opposite which mark on wafer can
sides of wafer or stepped region, and be seen.
use a split-field microscope to make
alignment easier.

15
Use vernier for more precise alignmen
 Alignment problems: thermal expansion

Pattern on
wafer for
alignment

Alignment
Tm, Tsi = change of mask and wafer mark on
mask
temperature.
m, si = coefficient of thermal expansion of
mask & silicon.
For example, for thermal expansion of
2ppm/oC (silicon 2.6, fused silica/quartz
0.5 ppm/oC), assume temperature
change of 1oC, then the distance
between two features separated by
50mm will change by 2ppm or 100nm,
which is too large for IC production but
OK for most R&D.
16
 Chapter 5 Lithography

1. Introduction and application.

2. Light source and photomask, alignment.
3. Photolithography systems.
4. Resolution, depth of focus, modulation transfer
function.
5. Other lithography issues: none-flat wafer,
standing wave...
6. Photoresist.
7. Resist sensitivity, contrast and gray-scale
photolithography.
8. Step-by-step process of photolithography.

343 Microfabrication and thin film technology

tructor: Bo Cui, ECE, University of Waterloo 17
tbook: Silicon VLSI Technology by Plummer, Deal and Griffin
 Three basic methods of wafer exposure

Figure 5.3

High resolution. But Less mask wear No mask

mask wear, defect /contamination, less wear/contamination,
generation. resolution (depend on mask de-magnified 4
gap). choice
Fast, simple and inexpensive, (resist features 4
for R&D. smaller than mask). Very
18
expensive, mainly used
 Contact/proximity exposure system (called
mask aligner)
Hard to maintain contact or
constant gap when wafer/mask is
not even/flat.
Resolution (half-period for
grating pattern) is given by:
3 t
R g
2 2

g is gap (=0 for contact), t is

resist thickness, and is
wavelength.

4 objectives of optical exposure

system
Collect as much of radiation
Uniform radiation over field of
exposure
Collimate and shape radiation 19
Select exposure wavelength
 Stepper (step and repeat system)
Die-by-die UV light source
exposure
Feature size
Shutter
(typically) 4
reduction Alignment laser

Shutter is closed during

focus and alignment Reticle (may contain
and removed during
wafer exposure one or more die in the
reticle field)

Projection lens (reduces

the size of reticle field for
presentation to the wafer
Single field exposure, surface)
includes: focus, align,
expose, step, and repeat
process Wafer stage
controls position
of wafer in
X, Y, Z, 20
 Step and scan (stepper) exposure
193nm system: 193nm
stepper systems are
used today for IC Excimer
laser (193
manufacturing. Illuminator nm ArF )
optics

Reticle
library Beam
(SMIF pod line
interface)

Wafer
transport
system
Reticle
stage

Wafer
Auto- stage
alignment
system
4:1 Reduction
lens
Excimer laser: light is in pulses of
Optical train for an excimer laser steppe
20ns duration at a repetition rate of
a few kHz. 21
 Step and scan (stepper) exposure
system: 157nm

However, 157nm was not used for production and will never be used,
because it needs expensive vacuum (air absorb 157nm), and lens
22
materials (CaF2) have much higher thermal expansion coefficient than