Effects of photoresist polymer molecular weight on line-edge roughness and its metrology probed with Monte Carlo simulations

A fast 2D/3D resist dissolution algorithm based on the critical ionization model is used to quantify line-edge roughness and determine its relation to resist polymer molecular weight, the end-to-end distance and the radius of gyration, keeping acid effects off (i.e., minimal). The algorithm permits also simulations of line-edge roughness metrology by examining the effects of SEM measurement box length.

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