International Business Machines Corporation

Shin-etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Globalfoundries Inc.

Martin Glodde

Dario Leonardo Goldfarb

Wu-Song S Huang

Wai-Kin Li

Seiichiro Tachibana

Ratnam Sooriyakumaran

Sen Liu

Takeshi Kinsho

Tsutomu Ogihara

Libor Vyklicky

Michael A Guillorn

Steven J Holmes

Josephine B Chang

Masaki Ohashi

Hiroyuki Miyazoe

Pushkara Rao Varanasi

Nelson M Felix

Hsinyu Tsai

Takafumi Ueda

Ankit Vora

Kazumi Noda

Yoshinori Taneda

Margaret C Lawson

Javier J Perez

Daiji Kawamura

Takeru Watanabe

Yoshio Kawai

Yiheng Xu

Sebastian Ulrich Engelmann

Hoa D Truong

Karen Elizabeth Petrillo

Shozo Shirai

Mark S Chace

Rie Kikuchi

Irene Popova

Qin Yuan

Edward R Engbrecht

Janine L Protzman

Sen Liu`

An etch process that includes removing an oxide containing surface layer from a semiconductor surface to be etched by applying a hydrofluoric (HF) based chemistry, wherein the hydrofluoric (HF) based chemistry terminates the semiconductor surface to be etched with silicon-hydrogen bonds, and applying a vapor priming agent bearing chemical functionality based on the group consisting of alkynes, alcohols and a combination thereof to convert the silane terminated surface to a hydrophobic organic surface. The method continues with forming a photoresist layer on the hydrophobic organic surface; and patterning the photoresist layer. Thereafter, the patterned portions of the photoresist are developed to provide an etch mask. The portions of the semiconductor surface exposed by the etch mask are then etched.

Method to improve adhesion of photoresist on silicon substrate for extreme ultraviolet and electron beam lithography

A patterning method that includes providing an amorphous semiconductor surface to be patterned, and terminating the amorphous semiconductor surface by forming silicon-hydrogen (Si&#x2014;H) on the surface to be patterned. A photoresist is formed on the surface to be patterned. The photoresist is then lithographically patterned using an extreme ultra violet (EUV) method. A photoresist is then developed on the surface to be patterned using negative tone development (NTD).

Method to increase the lithographic process window of extreme ultra violet negative tone development resists

A polymer brush with a plurality of repeat units wherein some portions of the repeat units have one or more grafting groups and some portions have one or more interface tuning groups is disclosed. The grafting groups are selected based on the identity of an inorganic substrate, and the interface tuning groups are selected based on the identity of a photoresist that will interact with the groups. A process of lithographic patterning and an electronic device comprising at least one integrated circuit formed by the process of lithographic patterning are disclosed as well. The process comprises providing an inorganic substrate, depositing the disclosed polymer brush onto the inorganic substrate, and depositing a photoresist onto the polymer brush. The process further comprises masking the photoresist with a photomask having a pattern, and applying energy to the masked photoresist to form an etch mask. The inorganic substrate is then etched.

Polymer brushes for extreme ultraviolet photolithography

Embodiments are directed to a method and resulting structures for improving the adhesion of a polymer to the surface of a substrate. A substrate is formed and a surface of the substrate is modified to include X&#x2014;H functional group terminations. A polymer is formed on the modified surface of the substrate. The polymer and substrate are heated to chemically bond the polymer to the surface of the substrate.

Adhesion of polymers on silicon substrates

A layered structure includes a substrate; an underlayer including a reversibly crosslinked polymer and/or oligomer interconnected by ester functionalities; a silicon-containing mask overlaying the underlayer; and a photoresist overlaying the silicon-containing hardmask layer. Also described are multilayer lithographic processes and processes of forming the underlayer, which generally includes coating an underlayer composition onto a surface of the substrate at a thickness effective to provide a planar upper surface, wherein the underlayer composition includes a polymer including terminal alcohol groups, a multifunctional anhydride, and a solvent. The underlayer composition is heated to a temperature to effect a crosslinking reaction between the multifunctional anhydride and the terminal alcohol groups to form the ester functionalities, which can be selectively removed (reversibly crosslinked) using a wet etchant.

Wet strippable gap fill materials

The present invention provides a patterning process, which comprises step of forming a BPSG film on the under layer film by using a composition for forming a coating type BPSG film including a base polymer and an organic compound with a content of 25 parts by mass or more of the organic compound with respect to 100 parts by mass of the base polymer, the base polymer having a silicon containing unit, a boron containing unit and a phosphorus containing unit with a total content of the boron containing unit and the phosphorus containing unit being 10 mol % or more, the organic compound having two or more hydroxyl groups or carboxyl groups per one molecule. There can be provided a patterning process in which a fine mask pattern can be formed on the substrate to be processed by the multilayer resist method, and the residue of the resist under layer film on the mask pattern can be removed cleanly enough to process the substrate to be processed without causing damage to the substrate to be processed and the under layer film.

Patterning process using a boron phosphorus silicon glass film

A method of testing the cleanability of polymerized sublimate outgassed from a lithography material during a thermal heating process including; placing a wafer on a wafer hotplate inside a chamber with the wafer being covered by a lithography material; placing a target, having a starting composition, above the wafer in the chamber; heating the wafer using the wafer hotplate in an attempt to outgas a sublimate, where the sublimate condenses on the target; forming a polymerized sublimate on the target; and applying organic solvents to the target to determine the cleanability of the polymerized sublimate.

Cleanability assessment of sublimate from lithography materials

A curable liquid formulation comprising: (i) one or more near-infrared absorbing polymethine dyes; (ii) one or more crosslinkable polymers; and (iii) one or more casting solvents. The invention is also directed to solid near-infrared absorbing films composed of crosslinked forms of the curable liquid formulation. The invention is also directed to a microelectronic substrate containing a coating of the solid near-infrared absorbing film as well as a method for patterning a photoresist layer coated on a microelectronic substrate in the case where the near-infrared absorbing film is between the microelectronic substrate and a photoresist film.

Near-infrared absorbing film compositions

An silicon-containing antireflective coating (SiARC) material is applied on a substrate. The SiARC material which includes a base polymer and may include a boron silicate polymer including silsesquioxane. An etch sequence is utilized, which includes a first wet etch employing a basic solution, a second wet etch employing an acidic solution, and a third wet etch employing another basic solution. The first wet etch can be employed to break up the boron silicate polymer, and the second wet etch can remove the base polymer material, and the third wet etch can remove the residual boron silicate polymer and other residual materials. The SiARC material can be removed from a substrate employing the etch sequence, and the substrate can be reused for monitoring purposes.

Wet strip process for an antireflective coating layer

Various methods include: forming an opening in a resist layer to expose a portion of an underlying blocking layer; performing an etch on the exposed portion of the blocking layer to expose a portion of an etch stop layer, wherein the etch stop layer resists etching during the etch of the exposed portion of the blocking layer; etching the exposed portion of the etch stop layer to expose a portion of a substrate below the exposed portion of the etch stop layer and leave a remaining portion of the etch stop layer; and ion implanting the exposed portion of the substrate, wherein the blocking layer prevents ion implanting of the substrate outside of the exposed portion.

Deep well implant using blocking mask

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Pine Brook, NJ, United States of America

Martin Glodde