CHE323/CHE384

Chemical Processes for Micro- and Nanofabrication What is Lithography?

www.lithoguru.com/scientist/CHE323

Lecture 38
• In the art world, lithography is
Lithography: a two-century-old printing
Introduction technology used to make
prints and posters

Chris A. Mack
Adjunct Associate Professor • In the semiconductor world,
lithography is the printing
Reading: technology used to mass-
Chapter 7, Fabrication Engineering at the Micro- and Nanoscale, 4th edition, Campbell produce chips like Flash chip
microprocessors, memory and circa 2009
flash that are at the heart of
electronic devices

© 2013 by Chris A. Mack www.lithoguru.com © Chris Mack 1

Defining Lithography Motivation

(Why care about lithography?)

li · thog · ra · phy , n. [<Gr. • Why is lithography so important?

lithos, stone + graphia, to write] – 50% of the cost of making a modern chip (integrated
1. a printing technique based circuit) is litho cost
Mask
on the production of a three- – Improvements in chip cost and performance (Moore’s
dimensional relief image on a Law) have historically been gated by lithography
capability
substrate (writing on stones).
• Chip companies, governments, and universities
continue to invest large sums in lithography R&D
Wafer
– The hope is to keep Moore’s Law going

© Chris Mack 2 © Chris Mack 3

Why Size Matters A Note on “Small”

1961 2011

Feature size = 25 microns Feature size = 25 nanometers

(one thousandth of an inch) (one millionth of an inch)
Human Hair Red Blood Cell Red Light Retrovirus
~70 micron ~7 micron Wavelength ~70 nanometer
• We cram more transistors onto a chip by making (www.ualberta.ca/~mingchen) ~700 nanometer

each transistor smaller

– Lithography improvements must enable the printing Patterns printed with lithography
to make transistors are as small
of smaller features without significantly increasing the as 20 nm today, and still getting
cost of making the chip smaller!
Flash Memory (20 nm)
© Chris Mack 4 © Chris Mack (some images from Wikimedia Commons) Intel FinFET (40 nm) 5

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 Subtractive Patterning Lithography – The Basics

• Patterning Sequence (example)

• Ingredients of a Lithography System
– Deposit polysilicon (for example) on wafer
– Deposit photoresist layer on top of polysilicon – A master pattern to be reproduced called a photomask
– Expose and develop photoresist to create pattern – A photosensitive film called a photoresist
– Etch pattern into polysilicon using resist as mask – A special camera (called a stepper or a scanner) that
– Strip away the resist projects an image of the photomask into the
– Repeat 20 – 60 times to make a chip photoresist
photomask
– A tool for processing the photoresist (coating, baking,
developing) called a track
photoresist
polysilicon

wafer
© Chris Mack 6 © Chris Mack 7

Lithography Sequence Example Lithography Tools

UP

Illumination

Stepper
or
Scanner

Mask

Objective
Lens

From Nikon Corp.

Wafer Coat Prebake Expose PEB Develop Metrology

Track and Stepper/Scanner combined into a “photocell” From ASML

© Chris Mack 8 © Chris Mack 9

Lecture 38:
Example Tracks
What have we Learned?

• Give two important reasons why lithography is one

of the most critical technologies in semiconductor
manufacturing?
• What are the basic steps in a lithography
sequence?
• What are the ingredients (tools and materials) of a
TEL Lithius Plus (from Tokyo Electron) lithography process?

SVG 88 (Silicon Valley Group)

© Chris Mack 10 © Chris Mack 11

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