Process Solutions Containing Surfactants

Abstract

Process solutions comprising one or more surfactants are used to reduce the number of defects in the manufacture of semiconductor devices. In certain embodiments, the process solution may reduce post-development defects such as pattern collapse or line width roughness when employed as a rinse solution either during or after the development of the patterned photoresist layer. Also disclosed is a method for reducing the number of defects such as pattern collapse and / or line width roughness on a plurality of photoresist coated substrates employing the process solution of the present invention.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 804,513, filed on Mar. 19, 2004, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10 / 218,087, filed 12 Aug. 2002, 10 / 339,709, filed 9 Jan. 2003, and 10 / 616,662 filed 10 Jul. 2003, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to methods for the manufacture of semiconductor devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method for reducing defects, particularly pattern collapse and photoresist line roughness, in semiconductor devices incurred during the manufacturing process without sacrificing throughput. [0003] Defects are a major limiting factor for production yield and device function, particularly when the device sizes are reduced and wafer sizes are enlarged to 300 mm. The term “defects”, as used herein, relates to def...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0023] In yet a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for avoiding a collapse of a developed pattern on the surface of a plurality of substrates and reducing photoresist line roughness comprising: providing a first substrate comprising a photoresist pattern developed upon the surface; preparing a process solution comprising from 10 ppm to about 10,000 of at least one surfactant having the formulas (I), (i), (III), (IVa), (IVb), (V), (VI), (VII), (VIII), (IXa), (IXb), (IXc), (Xa), (Xb), (Xc), or (Xd) described herein; contacting the first substrate with the process solution; determining a surface tension and a contact angle of the process solution on the first substrate; multiplying the surface tension by the cosine of the contact angle to provide the adhesion tension value of the process solution; providing the plurality of substrates wherein each substrate within the plurality comprises a photoresist pattern developed upon the surface; and contacting the plurality of substrates with the process solution if the adhesion tension value of the process solution is 30 or below.

Problems solved by technology

Defects are a major limiting factor for production yield and device function, particularly when the device sizes are reduced and wafer sizes are enlarged to 300 mm.

The drive to reduce defects—thereby improving yield—presents new challenges to the manufacturing steps within the production of the semiconductor device, namely, the lithography, etching, stripping, and chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) processes.

Pattern collapse is becoming an emerging problem in the production of semiconductor devices due to the higher aspect ratios in the new generation of devices.

Both of these approaches may require extra manufacturing steps and special equipment that are not commonly used in semiconductor device fabrication.

Foaming and bubble generation may lead to defects.

According to Domke, the addition of the “surfactant” in the developer solution did not have a consistent effect on pattern collapse.

According to Cheung, the use of surfactant in the rinse solution did not provide much success.

According to Hein, some of the fluorosurfactants used worsened the collapse behavior.

Yet another emerging problem in the production of semiconductor devices is photoresist roughness such as in one edge of a single photoresist line which is referred to herein as line edge roughness (LER), or both edges of photoresist line which is referred to herein as line width roughness (LWR).

Although surfactants have been commonly used as a post-development rinse solution, these solutions may not be effective in reducing the surface tension under dynamic conditions.

Further, these solutions may have the undesirable side effect of foam generation.

Because of these issues, the rinse solution using typical surfactants used in the art may not be effective in reducing all of the defects, particularly pattern collapse defects, in the semiconductor device.

Images