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WILL CONLEY, MIRCEA DUSA, ROBERT SOCHA, National Semiconductor Corp., Santa Clara, CA, USA
NIGEL FARRER, Hewlett-Packard Company, ULSI Research Labs, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
HAREEN GANGALA, Cypress Semiconductor, San Jose, CA, USA
CARL BABCOCK, AMD Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
HUA-YU LIU, Numerical Technologies Inc., Santa Clara, CA, USA

ABSTRACT

Deep-UV lithography using 248 and 193-nm light will likely be the microlithography technology of choice for the manufacture of advanced memory and logic semiconductor devices for the next decade. Since 193nm lithography development has been slow, the extension of 248nm technology to 150nm and beyond is required. Advanced techniques, such as Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) and Phase Shift Masks (PSM) will be needed in order to maintain sufficient process latitude. This paper will discuss recent work to investigate the capability of 248nm lithography at 150nm. Imaging results using conventional and off-axis illumination (OAI) will be presented. Key resist performance parameters will be discussed, including process latitude, linewidth and line length control and full field critical dimension (CD) control. Although the performance appears to be adequate for early process and device development, further enhancements will be required for a manufacturable process at 150nm.