See more in the patterns defining the next generation.

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EUV Lithography

See more in the patterns defining the next generation.

EUV is enabling the industry's most advanced semiconductor nodes, while creating new demands for metrology. Infinitesima enables detailed 3D measurement of increasingly small and sensitive resist structures without sacrificing manufacturing throughput.

The transition of EUV lithography towards high-NA (0.55 NA) is the primary patterning technology which will enable continued transistor and interconnect scaling for the next generation of semiconductor devices. Finer pitches, thinner resist films, and new resist chemistries are necessitating increased control of 3D resist morphology. AFM differentiates as the only non-destructive technique that provides local 3D metrology at high accuracy and precision.

Film Stack

Target film, hardmask and under layer deposited on the wafer.

Resist Coat

Thin metal-oxide or chemically amplified resist layer, - 20-30nm.

EUV Exposure

13.5 nm light off a reflective mask images the pattern into the resist.

Post Exposure Break

Heat drives the resist chemistry, locking in the latent image.

Develop

Soluble resist washed away, leaving the line/space pattern standing.

Etch Transfer

Pattern etched into hardmask and target film; resist stripped.

EUV patterning requires uniform, low-roughness feature edges and consistent critical dimensions at sub-10nm scale, repeated across every die, without damaging fragile resist lines during measurement. 3D resist measurements capturing CD across the full resist profile are increasingly important to optimise the lithography process and maintain yield.

3D CD measurements (CD through resist thickness) are necessary to optimise EUV processes
Resist top-loss and local resist height uniformity measurements are critical to control defectivity rates.
Line-edge/line-width roughness (LER/LWR): thinner resist required for High-NA increases LER/LWR, directly affecting threshold voltage, drive current and leakage.
Stochastic defects and pattern fragility: shot noise and resist chemistry variability cause random print failures, and thin resist lines are easily damaged by e-beam measurement, distorting the roughness being measured.

Metron3D's low lateral force RPM gives direct, damage-free 3D characterisation of LER/LWR, resist profile and resist top loss at production speed, extending measurement into the thin resist structures that high-NA EUV depends on, with demonstrated capability to image structures at the resolution limit of high-NA EUV systems.