Performance of chemically amplified resists at half-pitch of 45 nm and below

The chemically-amplified resists have been exposed by hyper-NA 193nm immersion and EUV lithography. Patterns with 45nm half-pitch and below are investigated for process windows and line-edge roughness. Although the 193nm immersion and EUV lithography have totally different optics, an overlap of the resolution capability is clearly observed around 45nm half-pitches. Both lithographic processes show comparable process windows for 45nm dense lines. The 193i resist better responds to its aerial image than that of the EUV resist. Although the EUV tool has the resolution capability down to 20nm half-pitch, immature resist process limits the current resolution to 35nm half-pitch.