Application of a thin-resist process for KrF imaging to 130 nm device fabrication

A practical bilayer bottom antireflective coating (BARC) process, consisting of an upper conventional organic film and a lower amorphous-Si blackout film, is introduced to realize highly antireflective performance and efficient pattern-transfer performance simultaneously. The application of a thin-resist process for KrF imaging to 130 nm device fabrication is also investigated including a practical pattern-transfer process, especially in the gate layer and the metal-wiring layer. It is demonstrated that no standing-wave effects in the resist are observed due to the effective bilayer BARC structure; furthermore, the resist patterns, which are 215 nm thick, are successfully transferred to the substrates in the gate layer and the metal-wiring layer. Finally, experimental and simulation results suggest that the thin-resist process, in combination with the practical bilayer BARC process using KrF imaging featuring a numerical aperture of 0.68 and a partial coherency of 0.75 with a 2/3 annular aperture, could guarantee the early stage of 1 Gb dynamic random access memory device fabrication. (C) 1999 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(99)00606-X].