Study on resist performance of inorganic-organic resist materials for EUV and EB lithography

In the realization of further miniaturization at scales of 10nm and below in semiconductor devices, it is essential to get the new resist design such as hybrid inorganic-organic resist materials for ionizing radiation to clarify the effect of metal resist structure on resist performances. In this study, some hybrid inorganic-organic resist materials known as metal-oxo clusters were synthesized and their lithographic characteristics were investigated to clarify the difference in sensitivity and resolution among Ti-based, Zr-based and Hf-based oxo clusters by using EUV and EB exposure. Our results indicated that the sensitivity in Hf-based oxo clusters was higher than those of Ti-based and Zr-based oxo clusters in both EB and EUV exposure. Also, we clarified that it is very important for the new resist design such as hybrid inorganic-organic resist to increase photo-absorption cross section and density of elements. In particular, the size and homogeneity of particle and film quality is very important for resist performance of hybrid inorganic-organic resist materials. In addition, it is clarified that etch durability increased by annealing metal oxo clusters.