Feasibility study of optical/e-beam complementary lithography

Using electron beam direct write (EBDW) as a complementary approach together with standard optical lithography at 193nm or EUV wavelength has been proposed only lately and might be a reasonable solution for low volume CMOS manufacturing and special applications as well as design rule restrictions. Here, the high throughput of the optical litho can be combined with the high resolution and the high flexibility of the e-beam by using a mix & match approach (Litho- Etch-Litho-Etch, LELE). Complementary Lithography is mainly driven by special design requirements for unidirectional (1-D gridded) Manhattan type design layouts that enable scaling of advanced logic chips. This requires significant data prep efforts such as layout splitting. In this paper we will show recent results of Complementary Lithography using 193nm immersion generated 50nm lines/space pattern addressing the 32nm logic technology node that were cut with electron beam direct write. Regular lines and space arrays were patterned at GLOBALFOUNDRIES Dresden and have been cut in predefined areas using a VISTEC SB3050DW e-beam direct writer (50KV Variable Shaped Beam) at Fraunhofer Center Nanoelectronic Technologies (CNT), Dresden, as well as on the PML2 tool at IMS Nanofabrication, Vienna. Two types of e-beam resists were used for the cut exposure. Integration issues as well as overlay requirements and performance improvements necessary for this mix & match approach will be discussed.