The seemingly simple process of using a photogenerated acid catalyst to affect a solubility change in a polymer is the underlying chemistry which has enabled advanced semiconductor manufacturing for the last 30 years and will undoubtedly continue to do so.  The concept, termed chemical amplification, was originally developed in the early 1980’s to address the challenge of moving from i-line (365nm) to Deep UV ((DUV) lithography at 248nm.  This approach proved to be a very elegant solution to address the lack of source power as each photoevent generated multiple chemical events on the polymer thereby creating a solubility change.  Subsequent imagewise exposure allowed development of either positive or negative tome images depending on the nature of the photoinduced chemical changes to the polymer.  Ultimately, this concept was validated when IBM successfully used this process to manufacture 1Mbit DRAM chips with 1mm design rules using a negative tone develop process in the late 1980’s.  Realizing its potential, Shipley (now DuPont) partnered with IBM in the early 1990’s to develop and commercialize chemically amplified DUV photoresists for smaller design rules.  During that time, many new challenges specific to chemically amplified resists had to be addressed to ensure the technology was truly ready for high volume manufacturing.  Driven by innovations in polymer chemistry, synthetic organic chemistry, photochemistry and material science, resist chemists successfully developed a suite of photoresists to meet the needs of IC manufacturers.  Furthermore, the continued need for miniaturization led to resist chemists developing novel materials for imaging at smaller wavelengths such as 193nm and 13.4nm.  Most recently, the chemical amplification concept has also found utility in non-resist applications such as topcoat and developable bottom antireflective coatings.  This presentation will provide an overview of the development of chemically amplified resist technology from DuPont’s perspective.  The presentation will highlight how key industry wide problems were successfully addressed and also provide an outlook on the future of chemical amplification.<br/>

Chemical amplification: Past, present, and future - DuPont's perspective

2019 Fall National Meeting

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