Low Temperature Chemical Vapor Deposition of SnOx Thin Film toward Next-generation EUV Dry Resist

초록

Metal-oxide inorganic photoresists have emerged as a promising alternative to traditional organic photoresists due to their advantageous properties, such as high etch resistance, excellent pattern fidelity, and good photosensitivity at extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, making them an attractive option for advanced photolithography applications. In this study, we report efficacy of employing electron beam lithography to pattern low temperature chemical vapor deposition (LT-CVD) SnOx thin films using newly synthesized Sn metal-organic precursor together with H2O and other oxidants at low substrate temperature. More specifically, main purpose of this work is to investigate the feasibility of utilizing electron beam lithography to pattern SnOx films as a means to mimicking EUV radiation. As such, we explore the influence of modulating processing parameters such as electron beam dose and substrate temperature on the patterning quality as well as material properties of the SnOx thin films. Our findings corroborate that electron beam lithography can enable ultra-fine patterning with high resolution and accuracy for LT-CVD metal-oxide thin films, indicative of being the alternative evaluation tool in lieu of EUV radiation. The film thickness, roughness, morphology and chemical compositions were investigated by using various analytical methods including Ellipsometry, X-ray Fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS).