Litho-freeze-litho-etch (LFLE) enabling dual wafer flow coat/develop process and freeze CD tuning bake for >200wph immersion ArF photolithography double patterning

Abstract

The SOKUDO DUO track system incorporates a dual-path wafer flow to reduce the burden on the wafer handling unit and enables high-throughput coat/develop/bake processing in-line with semiconductor photolithography exposure (scanner) equipment. Various photolithography-based double patterning process flows were modeled on the SOKUDO DUO system and it was confirmed to be able to process both Litho-Process-Litho-Etch (LPLE)*2 and negative-tone develop process wafers at greater than 200 wafer-per-hour (wph) capability for each litho-pass through the in-line exposure tool. In addition, it is demonstrated that Biased Hot Plates (BHP) with "cdTune" software improves litho pattern #1 and litho pattern #2 within wafer CD uniformity. Based primarily on JSR Micro materials for Litho-Freeze- Litho-Etch (LFLE) the coat, develop and bake process CD uniformity improvement results are demonstrated on the SOKUDO RF3S immersion track in-line with ASML XT:1900Gi system at IMEC, Belgium.