Innovative Resists for Next-Gen EUV Lithography

The February Technology Transfer feature celebrates the research team led by Professor Julia Hsu at the University of Texas, Dallas. This team is dedicated to studying properties of indium-based resists that will provide alternative materials systems for advancing extreme ultraviolet lithography. Current state of the art lithography patterning utilizes tin oxide-based resists that provide superior resolution and higher pattern fidelity by using lower dose to activate the chemical reaction compared to conventional chemically amplified resists. The research project focuses on providing alternative inorganic resists that can be processed at low temperatures. This novel research is sponsored under the GRC Nanomanufacturing Material and Processes (NMP) research program. Marisol Valdez, who was awarded the 2024 Hiroshi Ito Memorial Award for Best Student Paper at SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning,is the primary PhD student on the project. The diverse team of graduate and undergraduate students collaborated with industry to achieve successful project results while simultaneously gaining valuable industry-relevant professional skills. NMP sponsors IBM, Intel, Samsung, and TEL highly value the research results emerging from Prof. Hsu’s lab.
Hsu Lab Research Team
The indium-based compounds, specifically indium nitrate, for EUV are of particular interest to industry because of their unique chemistries that enable processing at lower temperatures. When optimized, the ongoing research will benefit the industry by supporting the continued scaling down of transistors and facilitating the 3D integration of devices that necessitate low-temperature processing. The results and findings from this work will provide valuable information for understanding the tuning parameters for chemical synthesis and processes.
The project has produced excellent preliminary research results which paved the way to achieve NSF FuSe2 funding to accelerate the tuning of the materials synthesis and application by implementing computational and machine learning techniques. The results from the project also led to a patent application. In addition, the SRC research work has provided great opportunities for scholars to engage with leading experts in the industry and develop relevant skills to transition to workforce. Dr. Weijie Xu joined Texas Instruments, MS graduate Jesse Grayson joined Applied Materials, and Dr. Robert Piper joined Intel Corporation.
View Dr. Hsu’s SRC projects “Carbon-free Sol-gel Precursors for Metal Oxide EUV Resist” and “Indium-Based Resists for High- and Hyper-NA EUV Lithography” in Pillar Science.
Read the University press article here: https://news.utdallas.edu/science-technology/new-materials-for-advanced-chip-manufacturing-2024/
Find the NSF grant details here: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2425032