Modeling and Simulation of Line Edge Roughness for EUV Resists

Abstract

With the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, the performance limit of chemically amplified resists has recently been extended to 16- and 11-nm nodes. However, the line edge roughness (LER) and the line width roughness (LWR) are not reduced automatically with this performance extension. In this paper, to investigate the impacts of the EUVL mask and the EUVL exposure process on LER, EUVL is modeled using multilayer-thin-film theory for the mask structure and the Monte Carlo (MC) method for the exposure process. Simulation results demonstrate how LERs of the mask transfer to the resist and the exposure process develops the resist LERs.