Mechanistic simulation of line-edge roughness

Physically-based photoresist models, such as those in PROLITH, have been very successful in describing photolithography from a continuum standpoint. These models allow engineers to accurately predict the final resist CD on the wafer and to analyze process robustness. However, as the critical dimension continues to shrink, yield-limiting phenomena are observed that are related to the molecular nature and reaction kinetics of photoresist materials. An example of these phenomena is line-edge roughness (LER). In this paper, the origin of LER is hypothesized to be caused by fluctuations occurring in the initial position of the reactants, fluctuations during the exposure process (shot noise) and fluctuations occurring during thermally-induced reaction-diffusion (post-exposure bake). We have developed a lattice-based mechanistic simulator to better understand the stochastic nature of reactant initial position, the exposure step, the importance of the discrete nature of the reactants, the coupling to the deprotection kinetics and the deep complexity evident in the diffusion-limited acid-quencher reaction.