SPIE - Education Chemistry and Lithography SC1099

This course, based on the next edition of the book with the same title, explores the chemical basis of advanced lithography, which in all its essential aspects is about chemical transformations that are designed to print a relief image of an object on a flat surface. The object may be a mask containing patterns of integrated circuit devices; the flat surface may be a silicon wafer coated with photo- or radiation-sensitive resist, which upon exposure and development, or imprinting (as in the case of imprint resists), or directed self-assembly (as in the case of block copolymer resists), is transformed into the relief image of the mask. Underlying these transformations are distinct chemical reactions that are mediated by electrons. By drawing on fundamental, theoretical and experimental studies of molecular processes in advanced lithography, we will deconstruct lithography into its essential chemical principles. We will examine and show how electrons mediate the photo- and radiation chemistry of exposure processes of resists (be they organic, organometallic, polymeric or inorganic), as well as exposure tool sources (be they mercury arc lamp, laser, electron beam, ion beam, or plasma); colloid chemistry of resist formulation and dissolution (be it for positive tone or negative tone development), wafer and mask cleaning processes; electrochemistry of mask absorber corrosion, electrostatic discharge, and electromigration; surface chemistry of wafer and mask priming, along with thin film interfacial effects; materials chemistry of resists, exposure tool optics, and masks; environmental chemistry of the exposure environment (be it water, air or vacuum), as well as of resist poisoning; process chemistry and modeling of wafer and mask making lithographic unit operations, including substrate priming, coating, exposure, pre- and post-exposure baking, development, and post-exposure stabilization processes; inorganic and organometallic chemistry of mask defect formation and repair, of mask contamination from inorganic salt (haze) crystal growth, carbon deposition and oxidation; and polymer chemistry of directed block copolymer self-assembly.