Comparative study of line roughness metrics of chemically amplified and inorganic resists for extreme ultraviolet

Abstract. We present a comprehensive comparative study of the roughness metrics of different resists. Dense line/space of polymethyl methacrylate, hydrogen silsesquioxane, a metal oxide-based resist, and different chemically amplified resists (CARs) have been patterned by extreme ultraviolet interference lithography. All three line width roughness (LWR) metrics: the root-mean-square (r.m.s.) roughness value σLWR, the correlation length ξ, and the roughness exponent α, were extracted by metrological analysis of top-down SEM images. We found that all metrics are required to fully describe the overall roughness of each resist. Our measurements indicate that in fact, a few of the state-of-the-art resists tested here can meet the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors requirements for σLWR. The correlation length ξ was also found to be considerably higher in polymer-based materials in comparison to nonpolymers. Finally, the roughness exponent α, interpreted using the concept of fractal geometry, was found to be mainly affected by acid diffusion in CARs, where it produces line edges with a higher complexity than in non-CAR resists. These results indicate that the different resists platforms show very different LWR metrics and roughness is not manifested only in the σLWR but in all parameters. Therefore, all roughness metrics should be taken into account when comparing the performance among different resists since they ultimately have a substantial impact on device performance.