SBIR PHASE I: Plasma Deposition of Organic Antireflective Coatings

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究等离子体聚合作为有机防反射涂层（arc）的自旋涂层的替代方案。在这种方法中，电弧将直接在基板上形成，以减轻与旋转涂层相关的问题。第一阶段将专注于利用现有的等离子沉积聚合物材料和工艺，在半导体衬底上实现无缺陷、高度适形的涂层。IC制造商一直在追求使用更大的晶圆尺寸和更小的器件特性，以提高产品良率，降低单位成本，并提高片上计算能力。在光刻胶曝光期间，将衬底反射率降低到1%以下对于保持这些特征尺寸的尺寸控制至关重要。自旋涂层电弧具有良好的反射率控制，但受到自旋涂层过程中产生的均匀性、缺陷和一致性问题的限制。这项工作的长期目标是引入一个交钥匙ARC产品包，其中包括：(1)专用沉积工具，(2)一套专门为ARC应用设计的可等离子沉积聚合物材料，以及(3)在各种关键器件结构上沉积有机ARC的工艺。高性能有机电弧的可用性对于美国和国外芯片制造商在未来10年内成功实施深紫外（248和193 nm）微光刻工艺至关重要。据估计，到2005年，深紫外电弧材料的国际市场将增长到2500万美元。拟议的努力将建立一个技术平台，以确保在自旋涂层ARC的实用性被超越后有机ARC工艺的可用性。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I Project will investigate plasma polymerization as an alternative to spin coating of organic anti- reflective coatings (ARCs). In this method, the ARC will be formed directly on the substrate to alleviate the problems associated with spin coating. Phase I will focus on achieving defect-free, highly conformal coatings on semiconductor substrates using existing plasma-depositable polymer materials and processes. IC manufacturers have consistently pursued the use of larger wafer sizes and smaller device features to improve product yield, reduce unit cost, and increase on-chip computing power. Reducing substrate reflectivity to less than 1% during photoresist exposure will be critical for maintaining dimensional control at these feature sizes. Spin coated ARCs offer excellent reflectivity control but are limited by uniformity, defectivity, and conformality problems stemming form the spin coating process. The long term goal of this work is to introduce a turn-key ARC product package containing: (1) a dedicated deposition tool, (2) a set of plasma-depositable polymer materials designed specifically for ARC applications, and, (3) processes for depositing organic ARCs on a variety of key device structures. The availability of high performance organic ARCs is critical for the successful implementation of deep UV(248 and 193 nm) microlithographic processes by U.S. and foreign chip makers over the next 10 years. The international market for deep UV ARC materials is estimated to grow to $25 MM by 2005. The proposed effort will build a technology platform for assuring the availability of organic ARC processes after the usefulness of spin coated ARCs has been surpassed.