Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1260~Z~
LIT80GRAPHIC IMAGE SIZE REDUCTION ~o~s~
~ACKGROUND OF THE lNV~lON
The invention relates to a method of reducing
lithographic image size for integrated circuit (IC)
manufacture. More particularly, it is a method of
forming a mask having openings of a size smaller than
obtainable by litAograpny.
There has been an inexorable advance in IC
industry due to the insatiable appetite for scaling
down the devices. Scaling device dimensions reduces
cost of manufacture while increasing the performance
(speed). While this advance can be attributed to new
processing techniques such as replacement of wet
etching by dry etching (plasma etching, reactive ion
etching and ion milling), use of low-resistivity
silicides and refractory metals as replacements for
high-resistivity polysilicon interconnec~ions,
multiple-~esists to compensate for wafer surface
variations that thwart accurate fine-line lithography,
laser and electron-beam processing to purify and
red~ce defects in materials, nonoptical methods of
inspecting line widths and layer-to-layer registration
to replace optical methods incapable of measuring
these parameters at low-micrometer levels, lithography
2~ has been the driving force behind each step forward.
Improved lithographic tools such as 1:1 optical
projection systems fitted with deep-ultraviolet source
a~nd optics, electron- beam, direct-step-on-wafer, and
X-ray and ion-beam systems and improved photoresist
materi~l Q and ~roc~^ses such as m~ltiIayer resist
~tili2ing a top resist sensitized to X-ray or elec-
tron-beam and bottom straight optical resist layer(s)
are some of the components of this driving force.
Despite this tremendous progress, there remains
3~ an ever-growing need for reduction of image sizes over
and beyond that offered by enhancements to
FI9-86-012 -1-
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lithographic tools, materials and processes, per se.
~owever, the prior art has not been able to meet this
need.
The invention precisely satisfies this need for
reducing lithographic image sizes by extending litho-
graphic resolution to smaller sizes than capable by
lithography.
SUMMARY OF T~E lNv~LION
In its broadest form, the invention provides a
method of reducing the size of a lithographic image by
establishing a sidewall on the interior of the opening
in the lithographic mask material used to obtain the
image. In a specific embodiment, the invention
presents a process for making a mask having openings
of a size smaller than obtainable by lithography.
Starting with a substrate (e.g., semiconductor,
insulator ~r metal~, a thin release layer of an
insulator material, such as photoresist and silicon
dioxide, is formed on the substrate. A thick layer of
photosensitive material is then applied. The thick
layer is patterned by lithographic means to have
openings of a ;ni~.lm size dictated by limits of
lithography. Thereafter, to further reduce the size
of the openings, a conformal layer material is applied
to the patterned photosensitive layer and the sub-
strate portions ex~posed by the openings in the pat-
terned layer. The thickness of the conformal layer
material is determined by the desired reduction in the
size of the openings. For example, for an elongated
nrPn;ng~ the reduction in ~he width of the opening is
~ . Lely twice the thickness of the conformal
layer. An example of the conformal layer material is
SiXOy formed by plasma-deposited hexamethyldisilazane
(HMDS). ~y directional reactive ion etchino (RIE),
the conformal layer is removed from all the horizontal
surfaces leaving sidewalls of the conformal layer
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material on the non-horizontal surfaces corresponding
to the openings in the photosensitive material. The
release layer exposed by the openings in the photo-
sensitive material is also removed by RIE. The thick
photosensitve mask in combination with the sidewalls
of the conformal layer material constitute a new mask
(stencil) having openings smaller than obtainable by
iitn~gr~pny a;one. sinis new mask ~dll be useu for a
variety of purposes including ion implantation to
implant the substrate exposed by the reduced-
di~ensioned openings therein, as a RIE mask to etch
narrow trenches in the substrate, as an oxidation mask
to form recessed oxide isolation in the exposed
regions of the semiconductor substrate, as a contact
or metallization mask to respectively establish narrow
dimensioned contacts to or conductors on the sub-
strate, etc. Following such use, the new mask is
lifted off the substrate by subjecting the release
layer to a wet etchant.
To form narrow and deep trenches in a semiconduc-
tor substrate, the above mask forming process is
modified by starting with a semiconductor substrate
having thereon a thick insulator layer such as photo-
resist or polyimide. The new mask as described above
is formed on the thick insulator, after which the
thick insulator layer is patterned by RIE using the
new rlask as an RIE mask. Following the liftoff of the
release layer, the patterned thick insulator layer on
the s~bstrate will ser~e as a trench RIE mask for
etching deep trenches having a width smaller than the
lithog;-aphy limit in the semiconductor material.
~RIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The novel features, process steps and their
combination characteristic of the invention are set
forth in the appended claims. The invention itself,
however, will be best understood by reference to the
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detailed description which follows in conjunction with
the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Figs. 1-4 are sequential cross-sectional repre-
sentations of one embodiment of a process for forming
a mask/stencil having opening(s) smaller than dictated
by lithography limit.
~ig. 5 is s cross-sectional representation of an
extension of the process step sequence illustrated in
the preceding figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Now referring to the process steps illustrated in
Figs. 1-4, the process is initiated starting with a
substrate 10. The substrate 10 may be any material on
which a photoactive layer can be coated and patterned
by lithographic techniques. For example, the sub-
strate 10 may be a semiconductor material, glass,
i n~lll AtOr~ primary photosensitive material, metal or
a combination thereof. Next, a release layer 12 is
applied to the substrate 10. The release layer 12 is
çomposed of a material that is easily removable from
the substrate 10. Such removal is made by wet chemi-
cal etchants or by oxygen ashing. Since the basic
function of release layer 12 is to facilitate easy
removal of itself, any subsequently formed layers-
/structures thereon are correspondingly removed as
well. E~amples of the material suitable for forming
layer 12 include photoresist. In one example, AZ
1350J (trademark of American Hoechst Corporation)
photoresist material is applied by spin coating,
followed by baking at a temperatlure of about 200-250C
for about 30-60 mins. to obtain a release layer 12 of
about 200-1000 A thickness- 8elow about 200 A thick-
ness, the release layer ~ould be too thin to reliably
coat the substrate 10.
Continuing with the present process, after
forming the release layer 12, a thick imaging layer 14
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1260627 G3~
of a photosensitive material is applied, for example,
by spin-coating as illustrated in Fig. l. The imaging
layer; 14 is of a sufficient thickness in the range
0.8-3 microns. An example of the material of layer 14
is AZ 1350J photoresist. After coating the photo-
sensitive material, it is patterned in a desired
pattern by pattern-exposing in a lithographic tool,
developed, rinsed and drled For slmplic1ty or
illustration, in Fig. l a single opening 16 having a
lateral dimension A is shown in the layer 14 having a
substantially horizontal surface 18 and substantially
vertical surfaces 20-20. The dimension A may be the
smallest image size that is obtainable by lithography.
In other words, the width A may be the smallest
dimension that is achievable by pushing lithography
(which includes x-ray, electron-beam, etc.) to its
highest resolution limit. Next, the patterned photo-
sensitive layer is subjected to a hardening process
step to thermally stabilize the layer 14. Deep
ultraviolet exposure or heat treatment at a tempera-
ture of about 200-250C for about 1-2 mins. may be
used for hardening. Another method of hardening the
layer 14 is by subjecting it to a halogen gas plasma.
This hardening step is needed for conventional photo-
resists, lest the photosensitive material constitut-
ing layer 14 may bubble up, melt and flow or otherwise
get degraded during the deposition of subsequent
layers thereon.
The next step in the present process is estab-
lishing sidewalls on the vertical surfaces 20-20 to
reduce the lateral ~-m~ncion A of the opening 16
beyond that achievable by lithography alone. Sidewall
technology is known to the prior art as exemplified by
the following patents. U.S. pat. no. 4,209,349
assigned to the present assignee, ~tilizes sidewall
technology for forming small openings in a mask.
According to this method, first insulator regions are
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formed on a substrate so that horizontal and vertical
surfaces are obtained. A second insulator layer is
applied thereon of a material different from that of
the first layer, and is subjected to RIE in such a
manner that the horizontal regions of the second
insulator are removed, with merely very narrow regions
of this layer remaining on the vertical surface
regions or the ~irst insulator, and the respective
regions of the substrate, respectively. Subsequently,
the exposed substrate regions are thermally oxidized,
and for finally forming the desired mask openings the
regions of the second insulator layer there are
removed. U.S. pat. no. 3,358,340 describes a method
of making submicron devices using sidewall image
transfer. A conductive film of submicron thickness is
deposited across a vertical step between adjacent
surfaces of an isolation, and subsequently vertically
etched until there remains only part of the conductive
film which is adjacent to the vertical step. The
L~ ~ining isolation not covered by the conductor is
removed, thus obtaining a submicron-wide gate of an
MOS field effect transistor. U.S. pat. nos. 4,419,809
and 4,419,810 assigned to the present assignee dis-
close methods of making self-aligned field effect
transistors using sidewall to define narrow gates.
U.S. pat. no. 4,462,846 discloses use of sidewalls to
mi ni~ize birds beak extensions of recessed oxide
isolation regions. U.S. pat. no. 4,502,914 assigned
to the present assignee describes a method of making
submicron structures by providing a polymeric material
str~uc~ure having vertical walls, the latter serving to
make sidewall structure of submicron width. The
sidewall structures are directly used as masks. For
negative lithography, another layer is applied over
the sidewall structures, which is partly removed until
the peaks of the sidewall structures are exposed.
Subsequently, the sidewall structures themselves are
FI9-86-012 -6-
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C3
removed and the resulting opening is used as a mask
opening for fabricating integrated circuit devices.
To reduce the size of the opening 16 in the
layer 14, referring to Fig. 2, a conformal layer 22 is
formed over the patterned photosensitive layer 14 and
the portion of the release layer 12 exposed by the
opening 16 therein. The conformal layer material may
be polysilicon, SiXOy, si;ic~n dioxiae, si;icvn
nitride, silicon oxynitride or a combination thereof.
In general, the conformal layer 22 may be any material
which can be deposited at a temperature low enough as
to not cause degradation of the patterned photo-
sensitive layer 14. A preferred material for forming
layer 22 is SiXOy obtained by he~amethyldisilazane
(HMDS) plasma deposition.
Typically, the layer 22 is formed by mounting the
substrate with the structure of Fig. 1 in a plasma
deposition system, introducing liguid ~MDS into the
process chamber and generating the necessary electric
field therein which transforms the liquid HMDS into a
HMDS plasma. The HMDS plasma will deposit on the
structure of Fig. l obtaining a conformal and uniform
layer 22 of plasma-deposited HMDS having the composi-
tion SiXOy. The thickness ~ of layer 22 is determined
by the desired reduction in the lithographic image
size in the photosensitive layer 14. Typically, for
very large scale integrated circuit fabrication, the
thickness of layer 22 is in the range 0.01 - 0.6
microns. The lower limit for the thickness of layer
22 is dictated by the requirements of good step
coverage associated with the substantially vertical
wall profile 20 in layer 14 and viability of the layer
22 as a thin film. The upper limit for the thickness
of layer 22 is determined by the desired percentage
reduction in the size of the opening 16 in the layer
14. The percentage reduction in the opening size is
governed by the factor ?B/A. In other ~ords, if the
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size of the opening is 3 microns, in order to achieve
a 66.6% reduction in the size of the hole 16 (or an
actual reduction of the hole size to 1 micron), a 1
micron thick HMDS layer 22 is deposited. After
forming the conformal layer 22, next by anisotropic
etching it is removed from all the substantially
horizontal surfaces leaving it only on the substan-
tialiy ver~icai surraces or iayer 14. Rl~ may be
accomplished by a halogen-containing etchant gas. One
suitable etchant: gas is CF4. The resulting structure
will be as shown in Fig. 3 where the unetched portions
of layer 22 are designated by 24, now serving as side-
walls on the vertical surfaces 20 of layer 14. Due to
the establishment of the sidewalls 24 on the interior
of the vertical surfaces of the opening, the size of
the opening 16 is reduced to a new dimension designat-
ed as C in Fig. 3. The relationship between the
parameters A, B and C is given by: C = A - 2B.
Following the establishment of the sidewalls 24
on the vertical surfaces of the opening 16, the
portion of the release layer 12 exposed by the
reduced-size opening 16 is removed by RIE using, for
example, either the same etchant species which facili-
tated removal of layer 22 from the horizontal surfaces
of layer 14 or 2 plasma.
The photosensitive mask in combination with the
sidewalls 24 fabricated in this manner constitutes a
new mask (or stencil) having openings of a substan-
tially reduced dimension than obtainable by lithogra-
phy alone. The new mask serves a variety of purposes.As illustrated in Fig. 4, for example, it may be used
as an ion implantation mask to implant an extremely
narrow/small region 26 of the substrate 10. Another
application o the new mask is as an etch mask to etch
extremely narrow deep/shallow trenches in the sub-
strate 10. Yet another application is to grow a
recessed isolation o~ide free of bird's beak and
FI9-86-012 -8-
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bird's heàd of a width essentially equal to the
dimension C by subjecting the substrate and the
overlying stencil structure to a low temperature
oxidation. A further use of the new mask is as a
contact (liftoff) mask for establishing highly local-
ized electrical contacts to the substrate. Another
use of the mask is to form narrow conductor or insula-
tor lines of widtn C on the substrate.
Once the intended use of the new mask is com-
plete, it is removed from the substrate 10 by takingadvantage of the release layer 12. By subjecting the
release layer 12 to a suitable etchant for example, a
hot oxidizing acid such as nitric acid, sulphuric
acid, or hot phenol it is lifted off the surface of
lS the sùbstrate thereby removing the overlying layer 14
and its associated sidewalls 24. Alternatively, the
photosensitive layer 14 and the release layer 12 may
be removed concurrently by oxygen plasma. Any side-
wall material 24 that remains is removed by mechanical
means, CF4 plasma etch or washed off in a liquid base.
Turning to Fig. 5, there is shown in this figure
an alternative process of fabricating a nonerodable
stencil having openings therein of a size smaller than
capable by lithography, per se. In this process, an
underlayer 30 is formed between the substrate 10 and
the release layer 12. (In this embodiment, the
release layer 12 may be omitted.) The underlayer 30
- is substantlally thic~:er than the photosensitive
material 14. For e~ample, when the substrate material
is a semiconductor, the underlayer may be an insulator
such as polyimide or photoresist_ After forming the
sten~il precussor comprised of the release layer 12
and the photosensitive layer 14 having sidewalls 24 in
the manner described above in conjunction with Figs.
1-4, the process is modified to anisotropically etch
the underlayer 30 to transfer the opening 16 in the
layer 14 to the underlayer 30 obtaining the opening 32
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therein. When the underlayer is polyimide, this
etching is done by using 02 plasma. Following the
definition of the nonerodable mask 30, the overlying
structure is removed by liftoff of the release layer
as previously elaborated in conjunction with Fig. 4
description. The underlayer 30 defined in this manner
will serve as a thick nonerodable mask for etching,
ror eXampie; deep dnd extfemely narrow trenches in the
substrate 10. One such trench is shown in Fig. 5
designated by ~umeral 34. The trench 34 will have
near perfect vertical walls owing to the enormous
thickness of the nonerodable mask.
Thus, there has been provided in accordance with
the invention, a method of reducing lithographic image
size that fully satisfies the objects and advantages
set forth above. This method permits reduction in
lithographic image si~e over and beyond that possible
by improved lithographic resolution brought about by
lithography tool enhancements. In other words, this
method can be applied universally and for all time to
come, to move lithographic image resolution a signifi-
cant step ahead of improvements due to tool enhance-
ments.
While the invention has been described in con-
junction with preferred embodiments, it is evidentthat many alternatives, modifications and variations
will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light
of the foregoing description. It is, therefore,
contemplated that the appended claims will embrace any
such alternatives, modifications and variations as
fall within the true scope and spirit of ~he inven-
tion.
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