The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 17, 2018
Filed:
Mar. 17, 2017
Applicant:
Tokyo Electron Limited, Minato-ku, Tokyo, JP;
Inventors:
Vinayak Rastogi, Albany, NY (US);
Alok Ranjan, Tomiya, JP;
Assignee:
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/66 (2006.01); H01L 21/306 (2006.01); H01L 21/308 (2006.01); H01L 21/311 (2006.01); H01L 21/321 (2006.01); H01L 21/3065 (2006.01); H01L 21/3213 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 22/12 (2013.01); H01L 21/308 (2013.01); H01L 21/3065 (2013.01); H01L 21/3081 (2013.01); H01L 21/3086 (2013.01); H01L 21/31144 (2013.01); H01L 21/32136 (2013.01); H01L 21/32139 (2013.01); H01L 22/10 (2013.01);
Abstract
The described embodiments include performing a curing process for selective treatment, or hardening, of PS regions in PS-b-PMMA block copolymer DSA films prior to dry etch development of PMMA regions. In various embodiments, the curing chemistry can be Ar/H2, HBr, N2/H2, etc., which has the capability of generating Vacuum Ultraviolet (VUV) photon flux for polymer curing. The curing effect may enhance the etch resistance of PS regions, thereby freezing the bulk defects during plasma PMMA removal. The defects can then be measured by commonly used metrology techniques like CDSEM and quantized.