Improvement of productivity by spin-coating and flash imprint lithography

To improve the productivity of nanoimprint lithography (NIL) in semiconductor manufacturing, we have developed spin-coating and flash imprint lithography (SC-FIL). Using a newly developed SC-FIL resist, we imprinted a 300-mm-wide whole wafer including partial fields. The cross-sectional image showed a well-shaped half-pitch dense line with a width of 26 nm. The mix-and-match overlay accuracy (3σ) was 3.9 nm in the X direction and 3.4 nm in the Y direction. Assuming Washburn’s model of capillary flow, we identified the unique defect-generation mechanism in SC-FIL and hence optimized the SC-FIL process for high throughput and low defect density. After optimizing the NIL, the multimodule NZ2C system with four imprint heads is expected to achieve a throughput of 124 wafers per hour and a defectivity of only 0.005 defects per cm2.