Method of manufacturing semiconductor devices
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsChin-Ta Chen, Hua-Tai Lin, Han-Wei Wu, Jiann-Yuan Huang
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Abstract
In a method of forming a pattern, a first pattern is formed over an underlying layer, the first pattern including main patterns and a lateral protrusion having a thickness of less than 25% of a thickness of the main patterns, a hard mask layer is formed over the first pattern, a planarization operation is performed to expose the first pattern without exposing the lateral protrusion, a hard mask pattern is formed by removing the first pattern while the lateral protrusion being covered by the hard mask layer, and the underlying layer is patterned using the hard mask pattern as an etching mask.
Claims20
A method of forming a pattern, comprising:
- forming a first pattern over an underlying layer, the first pattern including a main pattern and a lateral protrusion having a thickness of less than 25% of a thickness of the main pattern;
- forming a hard mask layer over the first pattern,
- wherein the hard mask layer includes a seam or void extending along a first direction between adjacent pattern features of the first pattern and a recess located at an end of the seam or void along the first direction,
- wherein the recess is located at a greater distance from the underlying layer along the first direction than an uppermost surface of the first pattern;
- performing a planarization operation to expose the first pattern without exposing the lateral protrusion;
- forming a hard mask pattern by removing the first pattern while the lateral protrusion is covered by the hard mask layer;
- and
- patterning the underlying layer using the hard mask pattern as an etching mask,
- wherein the hard mask layer is made of a dielectric material selected from the group consisting of silicon nitride, SiON, SiOC, SiOCN, SiCN, aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, aluminum oxynitride, hafnium oxide and zirconium oxide.
A method of forming a pattern, comprising:
- forming a target layer to be patterned over a substrate;
- forming a bottom antireflective coating (BARC) layer over the target layer;
- forming a photo resist pattern over the BARC layer, the photo resist pattern including a resist scum;
- forming a hard mask layer over the photo resist pattern,
- wherein a seam or a void is formed in the hard mask layer extending in a first direction between adjacent patterns of the photo resist pattern and a recess is formed at an end of the seam or void along the first direction,
- wherein the recess is located at a greater distance from the BARC layer along the first direction than an uppermost surface of the photo resist pattern;
- performing a planarization operation to expose the photo resist pattern without exposing the resist scum;
- forming a hard mask pattern by removing the photo resist pattern while the resist scum is covered by the hard mask layer;
- patterning the BARC layer using the hard mask pattern as an etching mask;
- and
- patterning the target layer by using the patterned BARC layer and the hard mask pattern as an etching mask,
- wherein the hard mask pattern includes one or more of silicon nitride, SiON, SiOC, SiOCN, SiCN, aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride, aluminum oxynitride, amorphous silicon and polysilicon.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:
- forming a photo resist layer over an underlying layer disposed over a semiconductor substrate;
- determining an optimum dose amount of an actinic radiation carrying pattern information from a photo mask with respect to the photo resist layer and a mask pattern of the photo mask;
- determining an exposure dose amount less than the optimum dose amount;
- exposing the photo resist layer to the actinic radiation carrying pattern information with the determined exposure dose amount;
- developing the exposed photo resist layer to form a developed resist pattern;
- forming a hard mask layer over the developed resist pattern;
- performing a planarization operation to expose the developed resist pattern;
- forming a hard mask pattern by removing the developed resist pattern;
- and
- patterning the underlying layer by using the hard mask pattern as an etching mask,
- wherein the hard mask layer includes one or more of silicon nitride, SiON, SiOC, SiOCN, SiCN, aluminum oxide, aluminum nitride or aluminum oxynitride, and
- wherein the exposure dose amount is 10% to 40% less than the optimum dose amount.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.