Secondary electron distribution and photosensitivity performance of resists for extreme ultraviolet (EUV)

Abstract

Low energy electronic processes are key to chemical reactions during exposure of photoresists in extreme ultraviolet lithography. To understand and optimize the functionality of photoresists, it is of paramount important to assess the magnitude of the electron distribution inside the material. Although photoemission spectroscopy is being widely used, vacuum barrier crossing and nonideal photoemissivity alter the measured spectra in a way that prevents meaningful assessment of very low energy electrons. In this work we propose a model to account for the physics of photoemission effects and to reliably estimate the distribution from solid state matter.