Optimization of BARC process for hyper-NA immersion lithography

The extension of current 193nm immersion lithography technology is depending on increasing the numerical aperture (NA). High-resolution imaging requires the decrease of photoresist thickness to compensate for smaller depth of focus (DOF) and prevent pattern collapse. Poor etch selectivity between photoresist and BARC reads to the use of thinner BARC with faster etch-rate. Also, controlling reflectance over a wider range of incident angles for hyper-NA above 1.0 gives more challenge for thin BARC. To reduce substrate reflectivity, various material strategies (dual-layer BARC such as organic/inorganic BARC or organic/organic BARC, Si-based ARC/spin-on carbon (SOC), and so on) have been introduced through many papers. Organic dual-layer BARC is capable of suppressing reflectivity through wide range of incident angles. But, the inevitable increase of its thickness is not a desirable direction due to the decreasing trend of photoresist thickness. When amorphous carbon (a-C) is used as a hardmask for sub-stack, the combination of organic/inorganic BARC (i.e. SiON) is currently well known process. Si-ARC/SOC may be the promising candidates of hardmask because Si component of Si-ARC affords a high etch selectivity to photoresist and its combination with SOC decreases reflectance. The optical constants of above organic materials can be tuned to control the substrate reflectivity for hyper-NA.