INVESTIGATION OF THE PROXIMITY EFFECT IN AMORPHOUS ALF3 ELECTRON-BEAMRESISTS

A proximity effect occurs when two features having a close proximity a re exposed using conventional organic electron-beam resists, subsequen tly causing overexposure of the region between the two features and ul timate broadening of the features. In this study, we employ probes of a through-focal series to irradiate amorphous AlF3 (a-AlF3) inorganic films. A proximity effect of a very different nature is also observed while employing the a-AlF3 films as self-developing electron-beam resi sts. Such an effect distorts the closely spaced features and sets a li mit on the proximity of those nanometer-scaled features. According to the results of electron microscopy obtained while examining the peculi ar behavior of the proximity effect, mass-transport phenomena are crit ical in the damaging behavior of the a-AlF3 films. Besides, our result s presented herein demonstrated the ability of the through-focal probe s to produce aluminum nanostructures of varying sizes in thin films co ntaining a-AlF3 self-developing resists. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Soci ety.