Resist thickness dependence of line width roughness of chemically amplified resists used for electron beam lithography
Naoki Maeda, Akihiro Konda, Kazumasa Okamoto, Takahiro Kozawa, Takao Tamura
Abstract
Abstract Transistors have been miniaturized to increase their integration. With miniaturization, the thickness of the patterning material, called a resist, has been decreased to prevent them from collapsing. In this study, the resist thickness dependence of the pattern formation of chemically amplified electron beam resists was investigated. The line width roughness (LWR) of resist patterns increased with the decrease of initial resist film thickness. It was found that the dissolution kinetics depended on the initial resist film thickness. The escape of low-energy electrons to the substrates is considered to have resulted in the difference in the dissolution kinetics and LWR.