Development and Characterization of New 157-nm Photoresists Based on Advanced Fluorinated Polymers

摘要

Fluorinated polymers show a good transparency at the 157-nm exposure wavelength for single-layer resists. We have developed fluorinated resist polymers for 157-nm lithography. These polymers are main-chain fluorinated polymers synthesized by the co-polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) and polymers such as poly(TFEorbornene/α-fluoroolefin) fluoropolymers (FP1). In this paper, a number of polymerization initiators were evaluated in the polymerization of PF1-type polymers in order to investigate the effect of polymer end groups on optical and dissolution properties. We found that the polymer end group greatly affects the dissolution properties of these polymers when using a standard 0.26N tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) aqueous developer solution. These end groups also affect the polymer transparencies at 157-nm, and the resulting lithographic performance. The fluorocarbon initiator named "F2" induced the lowered absorbance (~0.4 μm~(-1)) and an increase in the dissolution rate (~300 nm/sec) without noticeable amounts of swelling. These polymer-based resists can achieve a resolution of less than 60-nm using a 157-nm laser microstepper (NA= 0.85) with a Levenson-type strong phase shifting mask.