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Lithography
A light sensitive photoresist is spun onto the
wafer forming a thin layer on the surface. The
resist is then selectively exposed by shining
light through a mask which contains the
pattern information for the particular being
fabricated. The resist is then developed which
completes the pattern transfer from the mask to
the wafer.
Lithography comes from two Greek words, lithos which
means stone and graphein which means write.
writing a pattern on stone
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Lithography
Lithography is the most complicated, expensive, and critical
process of modern IC manufacturing.
Lithography transforms complex circuit diagrams into pattern
which are define on the wafer in a succession of exposure and
processing steps to form a number of superimposed layers of
insulator, conductor, and semiconductors materials.
Typically 8-25 lithography steps and several hundred processing
steps between exposure are required to fabricate a packed IC.
The minimum feature size i. e., the minimum line width or line to
line separation that can be printed on the surface, control the
number of circuits that can be placed on the chip and has a
direct impact on circuit speed. The evolution of IC is therefore
closely linked to the evolution of lithographic tools.
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Lithography Overview
While the lithography
concept is very simple, the
actual implementation is very
complex, because of the
following demands placed on
this process:
Resolution - demand for
smaller device structures
Exposure field - chip size
and need to expose at least
one full chip (8 wafer)
Placement accuracy -
alignment with respect to the
existing pattern
Throughput -
manufacturing cost
Reduction of defects
density - yield loss
0.7X in linear dimension every 3 years.
Placement accuracy 1/3 of feature size.
35% of total wafer manufacturing costs for
lithography.
Note the ???. This represents the single biggest
uncertainty about the future of the roadmap.
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Light Sources
Decreasing feature sizes
require the use of shorter .
Traditionally Hg vapor lamps
have been used which generate
many spectral lines from a high
intensity
plasma inside a glass lamp.
(Electrons are excited to
higher energy levels by
collisions in the plasma.
Photons are emitted when the
energy is released.)
g line - = 436 nm
i line - = 365 nm (used for 0.5
m, 0.35 m)
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Historical Development and Basic
Concepts
Patterning process consists of mask design, mask
fabrication and wafer printing.
It is convenient to divide the wafer printing process
into three parts
A. Light source - Shorter wavelength photons
B. Wafer exposure system.
C. Resist. 6
Light Sources: Laser Sources
The most powerful and commonly
used laser sources for deep UV
photolithography are the excimer
lasers.
Kr +NF
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KrFphoton emission
Energy
KrF - = 248 nm (used for 0.25 mm)
ArF - = 193 nm
Issues include finding suitable
resists and transparent optical
components at these wavelengths.
The combination of the high power and
deep UV lines makes ArF and KrF
attractive sources for advance optical
lithography
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Wafer Exposure Systems
Contact printing is capable of high resolution but has unacceptable defect
densities. Inexpensive, diffraction effects are minimize.
Proximity printing cannot easily print features below a few m (except for x-ray
systems). Poor resolution due to diffraction effects, required 1 X mask.
Projection printing provides high resolution and low defect densities and \
dominates today.
Typical projection systems use reduction optics (2X - 5X), step and repeat or step
and scan mechanical systems, print 50 wafers/hour and cost $5 - 10M.
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Photomask
A mask for optical lithography consists of a
transparent plate called blank, covered with a
patterned film of opaque material.
The blank is made of soda lime, borosilicate
glass, or fused quartz. The advantage of the
quartz is that it is transparent to deep UV
(365nm) and has a very low thermal
expansion coefficient.
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Pattern Generation using CAD tools
In a typical CAD system
pattern is designed with
a light pen on a cathode
ray tube. The output of
the CAD system is
usually in the form of a
binary data.
The data are first
translated into machine
language and then
transmitted to an
optical, electron beam,
or laser system and
finally design shapes on
the mask.
A laser pattern generation system
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Optics - Basics and Diffraction
Ray tracing (assuming light
travels in straight lines)
works well as long as the
dimensions are large compared
to i. e. particle nature of
the light.
At smaller dimensions,
diffraction effects dominate
i.e., wave nature of the light.
Dimensions on the mask are
comparable to the wavelength
of the light.
If the aperture is on the order of , the light spreads out after
passing through the aperture. (The smaller the aperture, the more it
spreads out.) The light that passes through the aperture (mask)
carries with it the information on the size and shape of that
aperture (device pattern).
In order to understand the capabilities of modern wafer exposure systems we
will need to review some basic concepts about light and optical system.
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The light diffracted to wider angels carries the information about the finer details
of the Aperture (device pattern), which are lost first when lens of finite size is used
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size of the image
(diameter).