Are Surfaces Of Silicon Hardmasks Adaptive?


Silicon hardmask (Si-HM) materials used in lithography processes play a critical role in transferring patterns to desired substrates. In addition, these materials allow for the tuning of optical properties such as reflectivity and optical distribution for better lithography. Si-HM materials also need to possess good compatibility with photoresists before and after optical exposure, during which... » read more

Improvement Of EUV Si Hardmask Performance Through Wet Chemistry Functionalization


In EUV lithography, spin-on silicon hardmasks have been widely used not only as etch transfer layers, but also as assist layers to enhance the lithographic performance of resist. In this study, we demonstrate a novel approach to functionalize spin-on silicon hardmasks by hybridizing them with functional groups through a sol-gel approach. By varying the concentration and type of the functional g... » read more

Defect Mitigation And Characterization In Silicon Hardmask Materials


From SPIE Digital Library: In this study, metal contaminants, liquid particle count and on-wafer defects of Si- HMs and filtration removal rates are monitored to determine the effect of filter type, pore size, media morphology, and cleanliness on filtration performance. 5-nm PTFE NTD2 filter having proprietary surface treatment used in this study shows lowest defect count. Authors: Vineet... » read more

Si Hardmask (Si-HM), EUV And Zero Defects


The multilayer system used in lithography consists of a planarizing carbon layer beneath a hardmask etch-transferring layer and capped with a standard photoresist coating. In the past, Brewer Science has discussed in-depth how the multilayer system helped to extend ArF (193 nm) immersion lithography to be able to print and transfer ever-shrinking features, ensuring enough process window especia... » read more