Novel Antireflective Coating to Improve Microelectronic Processings

One of the primary processes used for device patterning in the electronics industry is deep ultaviolet photolithography. However, the highly reflective substrates require reduction of this reflectivity to minimize standing waves and to maintain tightdimensional control. Most of te industry uses anti-reflective coatings (ARCs) which are applied using the spin coating technique. Unfortunately, spin coating is not a conformal coating and tends to planarize complex geometries, essentially filling in theholes and rounding the features. This results in erosin of feature sidewalls and loss of dimensional integrity. The industry requires a new process for application of ARCs which is highly conformal, has low defect density and is equally applicable tosubstrates up to 12