Anti-shrinkage coating approach as a solution provider to ArF resists

Summary form only given. The authors present an anti-shrinkage coating (ASC) approach as a solution provider to improve the shrinkage of ArF resists during critical dimension (CD) measurement. Aqueous ASC material consists of anti-shrinking water-soluble polymers and other additives (e.g. cross-linker) and is coated and baked on the developed wafer and rinsed by deionised water. ASC was applied to two 193 nm resist systems and the shrinkages are about 7-8 nm after 50 measurements in the same SEM conditions as for measuring KrF resists. The line shrinkage of the ASC was improved by 70% compared to that of the ArF resist. In addition, the pattern fidelity and LER, which are serious problems for ArF resists, were also improved by the ASC process.