Absolute sensitivity calibration of extreme ultraviolet photoresists

One of the major challenges facing the commercialization of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography remains simultaneously achieving resist sensitivity, line-edge roughness, and resolution requirement. Sensitivity is of particular concern owing to its direct impact on source power requirements. Most current EUV exposure tools have been calibrated against a resist standard with the actual calibration of the standard resist dating back to EUV exposures at Sandia National Laboratories in the mid 1990s. Here we report on an independent sensitivity calibration of two baseline resists from the SEMATECH Berkeley MET tool performed at the Advanced Light Source Calibrations and Standards beamline. The results show the baseline resists to be approximately 1.9 times faster than previously thought based on calibration against the long standing resist standard. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.