TY - JOUR
T1 - Time-dependent exposure dose of hydrogen silsesquioxane when used as a negative electron-beam resist
AU - Clark, Nathaniel
AU - Vanderslice, Amy
AU - Grove, Robert
AU - Krchnavek, Robert R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this work was provided by the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Initiative of the NSF under Grant No. CHE-0117752, by the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) program of the NSF under Grant No. ECS-0300497, and by the New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR).
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) is used as a high-resolution, negative-tone, inorganic electron-beam resist for use in nanoimprint lithography. Previous studies show that 1 week long exposure delay in air decreases sensitivity and enhances the contrast of HSQ [F. C. M. J. M. van Delft, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 20, 2932 (2002)]. In this work, the authors report that the electron-beam dose required for high-resolution (sub- 50-nm) HSQ patterning is shown to be very sensitive to the time the sample has been at room temperature. For example, a sample written with nanoscale features at constant e-beam dose will increase in size approximately 66% per hour of time at room temperature. The minimum feature size for a given dose depends on the ambient conditions the sample was stored in (air, nitrogen, vacuum). Samples stored in vacuum are not exempt from the feature broadening. Long e-beam writing times for large-area patterning of nanoscale features will likely suffer from this time dependence unless the exposure dose is varied during the e-beam writing. The experiments relating the various ambient conditions and the minimum feature size under dose control are presented.
AB - Hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) is used as a high-resolution, negative-tone, inorganic electron-beam resist for use in nanoimprint lithography. Previous studies show that 1 week long exposure delay in air decreases sensitivity and enhances the contrast of HSQ [F. C. M. J. M. van Delft, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 20, 2932 (2002)]. In this work, the authors report that the electron-beam dose required for high-resolution (sub- 50-nm) HSQ patterning is shown to be very sensitive to the time the sample has been at room temperature. For example, a sample written with nanoscale features at constant e-beam dose will increase in size approximately 66% per hour of time at room temperature. The minimum feature size for a given dose depends on the ambient conditions the sample was stored in (air, nitrogen, vacuum). Samples stored in vacuum are not exempt from the feature broadening. Long e-beam writing times for large-area patterning of nanoscale features will likely suffer from this time dependence unless the exposure dose is varied during the e-beam writing. The experiments relating the various ambient conditions and the minimum feature size under dose control are presented.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845263941&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33845263941&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1116/1.2366697
DO - 10.1116/1.2366697
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33845263941
VL - 24
SP - 3073
EP - 3076
JO - Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures
JF - Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures
SN - 1071-1023
IS - 6
ER -