Advanced micro-lithography process with chemical shrink technology

We have developed an advanced micro-lithographic process For producing 0.1 mum contact holes (CH). A chemical shrink technology, resolution enhancemen t lithography assisted by chemical shrink (RELACS) utilizes the cross-linki ng reaction catalyzed by the acid component existing in a predefined resist pattern. This "RELACS" process is a hole shrinking procedure that includes simple coating, baking, and rinse steps applied after conventional photoli thography. We evaluated the dependency of CH shrinkage on resist formulatio n. Though the acetal type KrF positive resist (low activation energy system ) can achieve around 0.1 mum CH after RELACS processing under the optimized condition, the acrylate type positive resist (high activation energy syste m) showed less shrinkage under the same process condition. The shrinkage pe rformance of the RELACS process largely depends an the resist chemistry use d as the underlying layer. The results of these studies are discussed in te rms of the influence of the base polymer on shrinkage performance and tende ncy.