Anti-Reflective Coating by Ion Implantation for Lithography Patterning

A method for lithography patterning, comprising:

• depositing a target layer over a substrate, the target layer including an inorganic material;
• changing reflectivity of the target layer by implanting ions of a first species into the target layer and implanting ions of a second species into the target layer having the first species, wherein the first species has a smaller atomic mass than the second species, resulting in an ion-implanted target layer;
• coating a photoresist layer over the ion-implanted target layer;
• exposing the photoresist layer using a photolithography process;
• developing the photoresist layer to form a resist pattern;
• etching the ion-implanted target layer with the resist pattern as an etch mask, resulting in a patterned ion-implanted target layer;
• and
• processing the substrate with at least the patterned ion-implanted target layer as a process mask.

A method for lithography patterning, comprising:

• depositing a target layer over a substrate, the target layer including an inorganic material;
• implanting boron ions into the target layer with a first energy dose in a range from about 30 KeV to about 100 KeV and a first ion dose in a range from about 1E13 ions/cm2 to about 1E14 ions/cm2;
• implanting phosphorus ions into the target layer after the implanting of boron ions with a second energy dose from about 30 KeV to about 100 KeV and a second ion dose from about 1E13 ions/cm2 to about 1E14 ions/cm2;
• implanting arsenic ions into the target layer after the implanting of phosphorus ions with a third energy dose from about 30 KeV to about 100 KeV and a third ion dose from about 1E13 ions/cm2 to about 1E14 ions/cm2;
• coating a photoresist layer over the target layer after the implanting of arsenic ions;
• and
• exposing the photoresist layer using a photolithography process.