Lecture 3

Lithography (Part-I)
GCE 6601: Micro and Nano Fabrication of Ceramics

Dr. Redwan Noor Sajjad

Associate Professor

Department of Nanomaterials and Ceramic Engineering

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
[email protected]
sites.google.com/view/redwansajjad

July 6, 2025

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Fundamental processing steps of fabrication

In the previous lecture, we covered various steps of fabricating CMOS

devices. The fundamental processes are the following
Lithography
Oxidation
Ion implantation
Diffusion and annealing
Etching
Thin-film deposition
In this lecture, we will cover the details of lithography techniques in-
cluding the evolution it went through to enhance resolution and future
directions.

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Non-optical lithography and fabrication techniques

X-ray lithography
Electron-beam (E-beam) lithography
Directed self-assembly using block co-polymers
DNA origami
Colloidal self-assembly

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Outline

Evolution of optical lithography in the past few decades

Light sources used in lithography
Exposure configurations
Resolution limits due to diffraction
Photoresist
Resolution enhancement methods
✓ Immersion lithography
✓ Design rule restrictions
✓ Double/multi pattering
✓ Optical proximity correction
✓ Phase shift mask

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Evolution of the microprocessor technology

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

Historically, feature size referred to the transistor gate/channel length.

Recently, it refers to the smallest element in the device.

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Lithography process

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

Light sources
Masks
Wafer exposure system
Photoresists

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Light source

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

Minimum feature size that can be printed on the wafer is directly

proportional to the wavelength of light used.
Subwavelength lithography - feature size smaller than wavelength
- only possible with resolution enhancement techniques.
436 nm - g line, 365 nm - i line, 248 nm, 193 nm - deep ultraviolet
(DUV), 13.5 nm - extreme ultraviolet (EUV). Current chips (only
the cutting-edge) are manufactured using EUV. Other sources are
still in use. 7
Extreme ultraviolet lithography

λ = 13.5 nm. Generated from a CO2 laser+Sn plasma

Optics - no lens can be used, no transmission/refraction allowed
since all material absorb light at these wavelengths. Only mirrors
are used.
Mask - mirrors are used as mask - reflective pattern.
Resist - similar to other systems. 8
Wafer exposure systems

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2000)

Contact printing: Good resolution, inexpensive, oldest system. No longer used

for high-volume production, produces high defect density because of the direct
contact between the mask and wafer.
Proximity printing: Gap between the mask and wafer. Solves the defect problem.
Degraded resolution due to diffraction effects and comes with simple
configuration.
Projection system: Dominant method of lithography today. Enables high
resolution without defect problems. Works with 193 nm DUV light sources.
Minimum resolution - 40 nm. Production rate: 275, 300 mm wafers per hour.

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Wafer exposure systems

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

Mask can be ‘written’ by e-beam lithography tool. E-beam tools can ei-
ther write the masks or directly work on the wafer - a process known as
direct writing. Direct writing is used in some applications but not suitable
for high-volume mass production since it is a serial process to write all
the patterns on the mask/wafer compared to the parallel process of ex-
posing the wafer through the mask. E-beam lithography is suitable for
academic institutions, in R&D facilities where throughput is not impor-
tant.

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Ray optics vs wave optics

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

When dimensions of physical structures are far larger than the wave-
length of light, light can be thought of as particles following geometric
optics/ray tracing. Under this condition,
1 Light travels in a straight line
2 The angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence
3 Snell’s law applies to an optical interface - n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2
When the dimension is comparable to the wavelength, the wave nature
of light must be taken into account. Some of the phenomena of wave
effects of light include interference, diffraction etc.

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Diffraction

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

When light passes through the small apertures of a mask, such diffrac-
tion effects can take place. Small apertures are written on the mask
when the feature size is reduced.
Huygens-Fresnel principle can be used to construct the wavefront at a
given time and space. According to it, every wavefront acts as a source
of a spherical secondary wavelet. The amplitude of the wave can be
found by superimposing these wavelets. At the edges of a slit, these
wavelets spread and spills in the region beyond the width of the slit onto
the screen.
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Resolution limit of contact and proximity systems

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

The lost light at the edges can be collected by a collimating/focusing lens as shown in
the figure. The light diffracted to the wider angles carries finer information of the slit.
Since the lens size is finite, there will always be some information lost and the image
will not be as sharp as the mask. The higher the gap, g between the mask and wafer,
the poorer will be the image formed since the diffraction will be stronger at higher gap.
Within the Fresnel diffraction limit, the minimum resolvable feature size is on the order
of
√
Wmin = λg

So a proximity exposure system operating with a 10 µm gap g and an i-line light source
(λ = 365 nm), can resolve features slightly smaller than 2 µm. For contact printing, this
limit is λ/20.
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Resolution limit of projection systems

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

A circular aperture will have a diffraction pattern as shown above. The pattern has a
central bright spots surrounded by dark and bright rings known as Airy disk. Distance
to the first minimum from the center of the bright spot is given by (d and f are indicated
in the previous slide)
1.22λf
distance =
d
Therefore, if there are two slits side-by-side, there will be two airy disks. According to
Rayleigh, the criteria - known as the Rayleigh criteria - for resolving the two disks is
that the two maximums should be separated by at least the first minima of the adjacent
image
1.22λf 1.22λf 0.61λ k1 λ
R= = = =
d n(2f sinα) nsinα NA
The angle α is the ability of the lens to collect diffracted light. Numerical aperture (NA)
is given by, N A = nsinα. Exact values of k1 depends on many factors, such as mask
geometry, photoresist chemistry. For simple optical lithography, k1 is between 0.6 and
0.8, but can be made smaller with advanced techniques. 14
Resolution limit vs Depth of field

Ref: JEOL

So higher aperture or light collection efficiency (NA) provides better resolution (smaller
R). But larger aperture lens are difficult to make and expensive. In addition, higher
aperture means lower depth of field - the length over which the image remains in focus.
This is a fundamental optical limitation.
λ
DOF = k2
(N A)2
k2 is around 0.5. Exact value depends on fabrication details such as photoresist prop-
erties.
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Resolution limit vs Depth of field

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

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Modulation transfer function

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

IMAX − IMIN
MTF =
IMAX + IMIN
where I is the intensity of light. MTF is the measure of the contrast,
needs to be at least 0.5. 17
Photoresist contrast

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

Contrast is a measure of the resist’s ability to distinguish light from dark

areas in the aerial image. Contrast is not only a function of the resist, it
also depends on bake times, temperature etc.

1 Qf − Q0 101/γ − 1
γ= Q
; CM T F = = 1/γ
log10 Qf0 Qf + Q0 10 + 1

A high contrast (low CMTF) is desirable; this can lead to sharp edges
from a poor aerial image. In other words, the sharpness of the resist
transition will depend not only on the image quality, but also on the resist
contrast. 18
Photoresist process flow

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

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Resolution enhancement techniques

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

The minimum resolution (k1 λ/N A) according to the example in slide 15

is 241 nm with 193 nm DUV technology. But today’s microprocessor
minimum resolution is 32-36 nm using the same light source! There
must be some resolution enhancement technique in place to achieve
this. These techniques reduce k1 and increase the effective numerical
aperture N A to enhance the resolution.
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Immersion lithography

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

The resolution of the system increases when the medium between

the collimating lens and the photoresist is changed from air to a
higher refractive index material, such as water which has refractive
index, n = 1.44. This value is much closer to that of glass and
there is less bending of light at lens-water interface. Higher angle
incident rays are captured leading to better resolution.
Higher N A leads to lower depth of field. But in this case, the
incoming rays come at a lower angle (left) thus somewhat
mitigating the effect. Therefore we have reasonable DOF even
with the higher resolution.
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Immersion lithography

Before immersion lithography was in place, the numerical aperture (NA)

of the dry lithography was typically 0.93, which corresponds to the lens
half-angle of 68o . Any further increase of the angle leads to negligible
increase in NA, but comes with more expensive manufacturing and loss
of depth of focus. With immersion lithography, we have,

λ
R = k1
NA
N A = nsinα = 1.44 × 0.93 = 1.33

This was the numerical aperture (NA) that was in use in the industry until
recently.

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Design rule restrictions

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2000)

The effect of diffraction is the most prominent around the edges, sharp
corners. It is exactly these shapes that lithographic systems struggle
most to print. One strategy would be to design chips that have less of
these sharp edges and corners.
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Optical Proximity Correction (OPC)

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023)

In this approach, which is part of a generalized approach to improve

lithography called mask engineering, we focus on the final footprint in
the wafer, not what the mask looks like. Additional spaces (serifs) and
void (cutouts) are used in the mask to address overexposure and under-
exposure in the wafer. Left: without OPC, right: with OPC. A simulation
approach can be adopted to add serifs and cutouts until the desired ex-
posure is found, often by iteration.
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Optical Proximity Correction (OPC)

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Phase shifting mask

Ref: Phase-shift mask, Wikipedia

One of the reasons of having poor resolution is the interference of nearby

exposures. Such interference can be cut off by introducing a phase dif-
ference (or path difference) between two adjacent exposures. This can
be done by depositing a phase-shifting layer in the mask in alternate
lines, which will add additional phase or path difference. The thickness
of the layer must be equal to odd multiple of λ/2 to ensure destructive
interference. 26
Double/multi pattering

Ref: Silicon VLSI Technology, Plummer and Griffin (2023), Cadence

Adjacent lines are difficult to reproduced because of interference. Exposures from adja-
cent lines interfere with each other and decrease the ability to resolve the lines. If every
alternative line is printed in each step, such interference can be reduced at the expense
of more lithography steps. It is also possible to expose the resist with the same mask
multiple times to improve resolution.
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Resolution enhancement techniques summary

Ref:The Rosetta Stone of Lithography, Cadence Community

State-of-the-art technologies use some combinations of immersion lithography, multi
patterning, OPC to reduce resolution and to continue miniaturization of devices. The
latest 193 nm DUV technology - before the advent of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) tech-
nology - had k1 close to 0.22, which resulted in (using R = k1 λ/N A and N A = 1.33)
the minimum resolution (R) or half-pitch of 32 nm (64 nm pitch).

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Reading

Silicon VLSI Technology - Plummer and Griffin, 2023 Version - not

2000 version.
Lithography - Chapter 5 (Under ‘Books’ subfolder)
“Lithography gets extreme” - christian Wagner and noreen harned
(Under ‘Papers’ subfolder)
Useful link:
https://www.lithoguru.com/scientist/CHE323/course.html

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