Lithography

Dr. Rohan Gupta

A.P,ECE
• Formation of three dimensional images on
substrate for transfer of pattern to substrate
• Lithos meaning stone and graphia meaning to
write
• Writing on stone
• Stones are silicon wafers and patterns are
written with light sensitive polymer called
photoresist
• Lithography and etch pattern transfer steps
are repeated 10 times
• 20 to 30 times
• 30% of cost of manufacturing
• Feature size reduction
• Exposing radiation such as UV light incase of
photolithography
• Photolithography
• Electron-beam Lithography
• X-ray lithography
• Ion-beam lithography
 Electron-beam Lithography

• Higher packaging density with high speed and low

power consumption, device dimensions should be
reduced
• UV light imposes limit on minimum line width to few
wavelength
• Wavelength varies inversely with its momentum
• λ=h/p where h is Plank’s constant
• Better resolution through electron beam lithography
• Electron beam exposure system is the best photomask
pattern generator
 Resist
• Formation of bonds when negative resist is
exposed to electron-beam
• Bond breaking occurs when positive resist is
exposed
• Molecular weight
• Resist resolution limited by swelling of resist
• Multilayer resist structure to overcome these
problems
• Electron resist are PMMA and MP-2400
Electron-beam optical system
 Electron optics
• Electron source generates electrons
• Spray aperture prevents electrons from
entering the optics
• Electromagnetic lenses
• Beam limiter limits the electron angle
• Beam deflector to steer the beam
Electron beam printing techniques
• Direct Electron-beam writing
• Electron beam projection printing
• Electron beam proximity printing
 Direct Electron-beam writing

• Attractive
• Better resolution
• Severely limited by time taken to write single
substrate
• Writing of gates in GaAs devices
• 6-8 slices/hr
• Speed of direct e-beam writing can be
improved
 Electron beam projection printing

• Direct e –beam difficult to use for pattern

transfer
• Resist sensitivity
• High intensity electron guns
• Self supporting foil mask provides collimated
beam of electrons
• Simpler
• Faster
• High resolution
• High throughput
• Stable mask
• Fast allignment
 Limitation
• Shorter life of cathode
 Electron beam proximity printing
• Compensate mask distortions
• Requires two mask
 Photolithography
• Photo or optical lithography is a process by which
photoresist is exposed and developed to form
three dimensional images on substrate
• Ideal photoresist has exact shape of designed
pattern
• Final resist pattern is binary
• Parts of substrate are covered with resist while
other parts are completely uncovered
• Binary pattern needed for pattern transfer
Processing steps for photolithography
• Resist strip is final operation
• After resist pattern transferred into underlying
layer
 Wafer preparation
• Improve the adhesion of photoresist material to
substrate
• Substrate cleaning to remove contamination
• Dehydration bake to remove water
• Addition of adhesion promoter
• Substrate contamination can take form of
particulates or film
• Chemical/Mechanical cleaning is used to remove
particles
• Organic films come from machinery and can be
removed by chemical, ozone or plasma stripping
• Inorganic films removed by chemical or plasma
stripping
• Dehydration bake
• Removes water by baking at high temperature
• Substrate is then allowed to cool in dry
environment
 Photoresist Coating
• Thickness control, uniformity and low defects
are major requirements
• Choice between static dispense or dynamic
dispense, spin speed and acceleration to spin
speeds
• Spin operation and spinner cleanliness have
significant effect on resist film
Photoresist spin coating process
 Post-Apply Bake
• Softbake or prebake
• Drying the photoresist by removing excess
solvent
• Stabilize the resist film
• By baking the resist, majority of solvent is
removed and film becomes stable at room
temperature
 Effect of removing solvent
• Film thickness is reduced
• Properties are changed
• Adhesion is improved
• Less susceptible to contamination
 Consequences
• Resist mixture called photoactive compound
may begin to decompose
• Resin (another component of resist) can
oxidize at elevated temperatures
• Convection oven baking
• Hot plate
• Decrease in required bake time over
convection oven
• Improved uniformity of bake
 Alignment
• Change in solubility of resist upon exposure to
light
• Standard positive photoresist is converted to
carboxylic acid on exposure to UV light
• Carboxylic acid is soluble in basic developer
 Various Exposure techniques
• Contact printing
• Proximity printing
• Projection printing
Various Exposure techniques
Contact Printing
• Mercury arc lamp to collect the lamp light and
direct the light in to aligner optics
• Cold minor to redirect the light
• Shutter to control the time, the wafer is
exposed to light
• Optical integrator creates multiple light
images which are recombined to improve
uniformity
• Aperture to block light rays
• Turning mirror to turn the light towards the
wafer
• Condenser lens to create parallel light rays
• Photomask
• Photoresist coated wafer
Alignment masks
 Limitations
• Transfer of particles and photoresist from
wafers on to masks
• Wafer and mask are aligned while separated
and then clamped together for exposure
• Third issue relates to mask and wafer flexing
 Proximity Printing
• Simplest method of exposing a photoresist
• There exists a gap between mask and wafer in range
of 20 to 50 micrometer
• Larger mask life
• Mask and wafer are placed in projection aligner
• UV light is projected at one time
• Resolution of proximity printing is 2 to 4 micrometer
• Not suitable for process requiring less than 2
micrometer width
 Projection Printing
• Image is projected via a system of lenses onto
the wafer
• Mask can be used a large no. of times
• Usage is limited to 100,000 mtimes
• Costliest
• Mask life is good
• Better resolution than proximity printing
 Post-Exposure Bake
• Densify the resist so as to reduce the
dissolution rate of its undissolved regions
• Improves resist adhesion
• Prevents under-cutting during development
• Toughens the resist
• 80-100 degree centigrade for 10-15 minutes
 Development
• Aqueous bases as developers
• TMAH is used
• Shape of photoresist profile and linewidth
control
 Postbake
• Harden the final resist image
• Higher temperature (120-150 degree
centigrade) make image more thermally stable
• Remove residual solvent, water and gases
• Improve adhesion of resist to substrate
 Pattern Transfer
• Patterns are transferred into substrate
• Substractive transfer (Etching)
• Additive transfer ( Selective decomposition)
• Impurity doping(Ion implantation)
 X-Ray Lithography
• Photolithography has its resolution limited by
diffraction effects
• Diffraction effects to be reduced
• Optical materials become opaque if
wavelength is reduced beyond a certain limit
• X-source illuminates a mask which casts
shadow on to a resist covered wafer
• X-ray lithography utilizes shorter wavelengths
• X-rays are generated by synchrotron beam bombardment
and aluminum target
• High electron beam to generate X-rays
• X-rays enter exposure chamber through beryllium
window
• Exposure chamber filled with helium to prevent X-ray
absorption
• Mask is held above the wafer by a small gap
• Whole wafer is exposed one time
X-ray exposure system
 Synchrotron Radiation
• High energy electrons are forced in to closed
curved path
• Electron moving through perpendicular magnetic
field emits radiation
• Radiation is emitted in narrow cone in forward
direction of motion of electron
• X-ray exposure systems use either conventional
electron bombardment X-ray sources or laser
driven sources
 X-ray Masks
• Must be extremely thin
• Absorber on transmission membrane
substrate
• Gold or tungsten film is used to absorb X-rays
• Transmissive membrane substrate is polymer
such as polymide and polyethylene
terepthalate, Silicon, SiC, Si3N4, Al2O3, Si3N4-
SiO2-Si3N4
 X-ray resist
• Lack of suitable resist
• Resist used for e-beam lithography can be
used
• Resist which have high sensitivity for e-beam
applications can also have high sensitivity for
X-rays
• 0.3 KeV to 3 KeV
• 10 KeV to 50 KeV
 X-ray printing
• Short wavelengths
• Eliminates diffraction limitation
• Optical systems uses collimated light whereas
X-ray systems are restricted to point source
• Slight magnification of pattern
• δ=Sg/D
• δ is small enough to be neglected
• Resolution depends upon δ
X-ray proximity printing arrangement