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US-20260130180-A1 - METHOD OF MANUFACTURING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND WAFER PROTECTIVE COMPOSITION

US20260130180A1US 20260130180 A1US20260130180 A1US 20260130180A1US-20260130180-A1

Abstract

includes forming a protective layer over a substrate edge and a photoresist over layer removed and photoresist exposed to radiation. Protective layer including acid generator and polymer having pendant acid-labile groups. groups include polar functional groups; acid-labile groups including polar groups; acid-labile groups, wherein greater than 5% of pendant acid-labile groups have structure R1 is C6-C30 alkyl group, cycloalkyl group, hydroxylalkyl group, alkoxy group, alkoxyl alkyl group, acetyl group, acetylalkyl group, carboxyl group, alkyl carboxyl group, cycloalkyl carboxyl group, saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon ring, or heterocyclic group; and R2 is C4-C9 alkyl group, cycloalkyl group, hydroxylalkyl group, alkoxy group, alkoxyl alkyl group, acetyl group, acetylalkyl group, carboxyl group, alkyl carboxyl group, or cycloalkyl carboxyl group; polymer having pendant acid-labile groups and lactone pendant groups; or polymer having pendant acid-labile groups and carboxylic acid groups.

Inventors

  • An-Ren Zi
  • Ching-Yu Chang
  • Chin-Hsiang Lin

Assignees

  • TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.

Dates

Publication Date
20260507
Application Date
20251230

Claims (20)

  1. 1 . A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising: forming a first protective layer on an edge portion of a substrate, wherein the first protective layer comprises: at least one selected from an acid generator or a base generator, and a polymer including at least one selected from: a pendant acid-labile group comprising a polar functional group, a pendant acid-labile group comprising a polar-switch functional group, a pendant acid-labile group comprising an ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms, a pendant acid-labile group comprising a lactone ring, or a combination of pendant acid-labile groups and pendant carboxylic acid groups; curing the first protective layer on the substrate; forming a metal-containing photoresist layer over an upper surface of the substrate proximal to the cured first protective layer; removing the first protective layer from the edge portion of the substrate while retaining the metal-containing photoresist layer on the upper surface of the substrate; after the removing the first protective layer from the edge portion of the substrate, baking the metal-containing photoresist layer on the upper surface of the substrate; exposing the baked metal-containing photoresist layer to a pattern of radiation to form a latent pattern in the metal-containing photoresist layer; developing the latent pattern in the exposed metal-containing photoresist layer to form a pattern of openings in the metal-containing photoresist layer; and transferring the pattern of openings into the substrate by etching the substrate through the pattern of openings in the metal-containing photoresist layer.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group including the polar functional group, and the polar functional group includes at least one selected from —OH, ═O, —S—, —P—P(O 2 )—, —C(═O)SH, —C(═O)OH, —C(═O)O—, —O—, —N—, —C(═O)NH, —SO 2 OH, —SO 2 SH, —SOH, or —SO 2 —.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first protective layer includes the acid generator, and the acid generator is a thermal acid generator.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first protective layer includes the base generator, and the base generator is a thermal base generator.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group including the lactone ring, and the lactone ring is a five-member lactone ring.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group including the lactone ring, and the lactone ring is a six-member lactone ring.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the baking the metal-containing photoresist layer comprises heating at a temperature ranging from 40° C. to 120° C. for a time ranging from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a second protective layer over the edge portion of the substrate and proximal to the exposed metal-containing photoresist layer before the developing the latent pattern in the exposed metal-containing photoresist layer.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising removing the second protective layer from the developed metal-containing photoresist layer before the transferring the pattern of openings into the substrate.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising the ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms, and the ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms has the following structure: hydroxylalkyl group, p, C6-C30 acetylalkyl ycloalkyl carboxyl group, clic group; and R2 is C4-C9 alkyl group, C4-C9 cycloalkyl group, C4-C9 hydroxylalkyl group, C4-C9 alkoxy group, C4-C9 alkoxyl alkyl group, C4-C9 acetyl group, C4-C9 acetylalkyl group, C4-C9 carboxyl group, C4-C9 alky carboxyl group, or C4-C9 cycloalkyl carboxyl group.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising the polar-switch functional group, and the polar-switch function a group is selected from an acetal group, an acetonide group, and an anhydride group.
  12. 12 . A wafer protective composition, comprising: at least one selected from an acid generator and base generator; and a polymer including at least one selected from: a pendant acid-labile group comprising an ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms, or a pendant acid-labile group comprising a lactone ring.
  13. 13 . The wafer protective composition of claim 12 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising the ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms, and the ester includes an adamantyl moiety.
  14. 14 . The wafer protective composition of claim 12 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising the ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms, and the ester includes an acetylalkyl moiety.
  15. 15 . The wafer protective composition of claim 12 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising the ester including from 11 to 40 carbon atoms, and the ester includes an acetyl moiety.
  16. 16 . The wafer protective composition of claim 12 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising a lactone ring, and the lactone ring is a six-member lactone ring.
  17. 17 . The wafer protective composition of claim 12 , wherein the polymer includes the pendant acid-labile group comprising a lactone ring, and the lactone ring is a five-member lactone ring.
  18. 18 . A wafer protective composition, comprising: an acid generator; and a polymer having pendant acid-labile groups, wherein the pendant acid-labile groups are selected from the group consisting of a polymer having pendant acid-labile groups and lactone pendant groups, wherein the pendant lactone groups are selected from
  19. 19 . The wafer protective composition of claim 18 , wherein the polymer comprises from 20 wt. % to 70 wt. % of the pendant acid-labile groups based on a total weight of the polymer.
  20. 20 . The wafer protective composition of claim 18 , wherein the acid generator is a thermal acid generator.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/120,978, filed Mar. 13, 2023, which is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/655,089, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,605,538, filed Oct. 16, 2019, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/753,902 filed Oct. 31, 2018, the entire disclosures of each of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. In the course of integrated circuit evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed. In one example, advanced lithography patterning technologies are implemented to form various patterns, such as gate electrodes and metal lines, on semiconductor wafers. Lithography patterning technologies include coating a resist material on the surface of a semiconductor wafer. The existing resist coating method, such as spin coating, forms the resist material on all regions of a wafer including edges of the wafer, even to the backside surface of the wafer. The resist material on the edges and the backside surface of the wafer during the coating process and subsequent processes (such as developing) leads to various contamination-related problems and concerns, such as contaminating the coater chuck or the track. Accumulation of the resist material on the edges of the wafer will disturb patterning stability on the wafer edge and causes erroneous leveling readings during the lithography process. For examples, the presence of the resist material on the bevel and backside not only increases the probability of high hotspot but also has the potential to contaminate subsequent processing tools. In other examples, existing coating process has high resist residual at wafer edges and bevel, which may induce resist peeling and result in poor yield. Various methods are used or proposed to address the issues, such as edge bead rinse, backside rinse and additional coating. However, the undesired hump was created by edge bead rinse and backside rinse, which is potential defect source in the following processes. In other cases, the additional coating further introduces contaminations to wafers and lithography system, or has additional efficiency and effectiveness concerns to manufacturing throughput. Accordingly, it may be desirable to provide a system and a method of utilizing thereof absent the disadvantages discussed above. Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) has been developed to form smaller semiconductor device feature size and increase device density on a semiconductor wafer. Because metals have high EUV absorbance, metal-containing photoresists have been developed to provide improved EUVL. Metal absorption from the metal-containing photoresists in the underlying substrate can contaminate the underlying substrate. An efficient technique to prevent metal contamination of semiconductor devices is desirable. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present disclosure is best understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It is emphasized that, in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale and are used for illustration purposes only. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion. FIG. 1 shows a process stage of a sequential operation according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 2 shows a process stage of a sequential operation according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 3 shows a process stage of a sequential operation according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 4 shows a process stage of a sequential operation according to an embodiment of the disclosure. FIG. 5 illustrates a process flow according to embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 6 illustrates a process flow according to embodiments of the disclosure. FIGS. 7A and 7B show process stages of a sequential operation according to embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 8 shows a process stage of a sequential operati