PROCESS OPTIMIZATION OF THE ADVANCED NEGATIVE ELECTRON-BEAM RESIST SAL605

Electron beam lithography requires a high resolution resist system capable of maintaining tight linewidth tolerances. These tolerances require a resist process which yields the greatest process latitude. SAL601-ER7 is an example of an electron beam resist which has demonstrated the ability to provide submicron resolution coupled with high resist sensitivity. This paper will focus on developing an optimized process for a new advanced negative electron beam resist (ANR), SAL605 which also utilizes a chemically amplified crosslinking system. The SAL605 electron beam resist is a next generation version of SAL601-ER7, and as such has many of the same processing requirements. The effect of developer normality and development time on sensitivity and linewidth control with MF-312 based developers will be presented. The effect of post-exposure bake (PEB) temperature and time with respect to sensitivity and linewidth control will also be presented. We will show that there are processing windows for submicron resolution which give high sensitivity as well as a large exposure latitude.