Extraction of Exposure Parameters for 193-nm Chemically Amplified Resist and Its Application to Simulation

Abstract

The exposure parameters for chemically amplified resists were characterized by measuring the transmittance and the thickness changes during exposure. A new approach to get the exposure parameters of a chemically amplified resist is needed since the transmittance behavior with respect to time exposure dose is much different from that of a conventional novolac resist. A dual mechanism, which includes: photo acid generation and acid-catalyzed deprotection during exposure, has been suggested to explain this. The exposure parameters for three 193-nm chemically amplified resists were extracted by using the dual mechanism. The newly obtained parameters were used in our in-house simulator. The simulation results show that the linewidth variation with post exposure bake temperature can be estimated.