UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, ARLINGTON

Photolithography
Lab teacher: Dr. Donald Butler
Sumeet jain (UTD ID: 1001159999)
10/23/2015

Experiment #3
Abstract:
The aim of the experiment is to investigate the methods of photolithography (Resist Spin
Coating, Soft Bake, Patterning (Exposure), Post Exposure Bake (PEB), Develop, and Thickness
measurements, in wafer processing

Objective:
In this experiment we have to coat wafers with resist at different spin speeds, baking the wafer,
measure the resist thickness, and plot the thickness of the resist layer as a function of speed
(rpm). In the next step wafers will be coated at a given thickness or rpm and baked and they will
be patterned and developed

Introduction:
Note: Use the same wafer as in experiment #2
Photolithography: photolithography is the method used to transfer the IC design layout onto
the substrate. Photolithography (photo-light, litho-stone, graphy-writing), as the name
suggests, transfers patterns onto the substrate.
The basic steps in photolithography are
Clean the wafer
Deposition of barrier layer
Soft bake and align
Coat with photoresist
Exposure to radiation
Soak it in developing solution
Hard bake and Etching of resist

Image1. Photolithography process

The quality of photolithography process is measured on various figures of merit

Resolution
Throughput
Depth of Focus
Thickness

There are basically three types of lithography

1. Optical lithography
2. E-beam lithography
3. X-ray lithography

Optical photolithography:- Out of these three, optical lithography is most popular method.
Optical lithography is done in three types: Contact printing, Proximity printing, Projection
printing
Contact printing:- Mask is in close contact with the wafer

Image2. Contact printing

Advantage: Very high resolution

Disadvantage: putting mask in contact with wafer results in wear and tear of mask. Also, the
mask gets contaminated, thus, lowering the life of mask
Proximity printing:- In this type of lithography, the mask is kept at a certain distance from the
wafer.

Image3. Proximity printing

Advantage: Life of mask increased

Disadvantage: Low resolution
Projection printing:- The projected image is focused on the wafer. The image is a highly focused
image. This is an expensive method but has advantage of contact and proximity printing

Image4. Projection printing

E-beam lithography: In this method, instead of a light source, an electron beam is shot on
the wafer. For this, the substrate must be placed on an X-Y table so that the beam can
recognize the exact location where beam is to be shot

Image5. E-beam lithography

Advantage: very high resolution, option for direct writing, greater depth of focus
Disadvantage: as the diameter of the electron gun is of the orders 10 3 that of the scanned area,
it takes a lot of time for patterning.

X-ray lithography:- This is similar to optical lithography. Just the light source used is X-ray.
This gives a lot of advantage over optical lithography. The electron beam is focused on water
cooled palladium that generates X-ray (wavelength=4.3 angstrom). These X-ray are passed
through beryllium window into the chambers filled with helium (helium does not absorb x-ray).
The mask and chamber are in close contact. The mask is coated with gold which does not allow
X-ray to pass through it.

Image6. X-ray lithography

Advantage: Faster throughput, good resolution, no proximity effect, not absorbed by dirt
Disadvantage: There are geometrical effects that blur the image at the edges

Photoresist: A photoresist is a material that changes its mechanical properties when exposed
to certain light source. There are two types of resists, positive resist and negative resist.
Positive resist has a base resin and a photo-sensitive material which absorbs light energy
and becomes become soluble that is allowing dissolving in developer solution. Thus it gets
softened in the region where light is exposed. The advantage of positive resist is that, unlike
negative resist, it does not swell and hence it gives a better resolution. Throughput of positive
resist is more, and hence it takes longer exposure to soften the resist.
A negative resist has a polymer and a photo-sensitive material which absorbs energy
and transfers it to the polymer. This polymer then forms a crosslinking which makes it
mechanically strong hence the resist become hard where the light is absorbed.

Image7. Positive and negative resist

Mask: A mask is used to allow and block the radiation at selected portions of the substrate.
There are two types of masks Dark field mask and light field mask.

Image8. Dark field and Light field mask

Karl SUS MJB-3 Mask Aligner Operation:

The Karl SUS MJB-3 includes lamp housing, sample holder, aligner module, microscope and
lamp power supply. The system is operated by control switches. There is a main power switch,
selector switch for high precision HP and SP mode, a timer which can be timed for fraction of
seconds to hours. It has regulators for nitrogen pressure and various other types of pressure.

Image9 Karl SUS MJB-3 mask aligner

Turn on the power supply lamp toggle. Let the power level stabilize. Slide the table and
place the wafer on the chuck. Place the mask in the mask holder and fit it on the aligner by
tightening the knobs. There are levers to control the chuck. After placing the wafer in the chuck
and sliding it in, the lever A is rotated counterclockwise which helps the wafer to come in
contact with the mask and lever B helps to enable the alignment of the chuck by sliding it
towards the front can increase the distance between substrate and bottom side of mask. Now
when the wafer is in contact with the mask a blue light glows. So use the levers to make the
contact of mask and wafer. Make sure that the mask knobs are tightly screwed. Now, select the
time for which U.V light is to be exposed on the wafer by using timer. Start the exposure by
pressing the green exposure button. Avoid looking at the U.V light as it is harmful for eyes. After
the exposure is over, rotate the lever clockwise and remove the wafer
To operate in HP mode there is another switch called vacuum chamber that generate
the vacuum between wafer seal gasket on chuck and the mask. This vacuum level can be
controlled using by using small valve. There is also a valve to introduce small amount of
nitrogen. Rotate the valve clockwise to increase the vacuum level. Do the alignment as
described above. We can also move the microscope using manipulator. Use channel 1 and
channel 2 for different wavelengths.

Equipment:
1. Tweezers: These tweezers are especially designed for handling delicate and fragile Si wafers.
They are made from anti-magnetic, anti-acid steel with smooth surface
2. Teflon holder: Teflon holder helps to immerse Si wafers into HF acid solution as it does not
react with the solution

3. Spin coating machine: This is used for doping the bare Si wafer with impurity in Predeposition step

Image9. Spin coating mechanism

4. Mask aligner:
This is used to expose the substrate to U.V light. Note, the substrate is covered with the resist
on it. This is also used to align the mask and substrate precisely which is of utmost importance.

Image10. Karl SUS MJB-3 mask aligner

Experimental procedure: Chemicals used: Chemicals: Shipley S1813 photoresist, hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) adhesion
promoter, Shipley MF320 developer, acetone, methanol, DI (deionized) water (H2O), and Si wafer

Safety precautions: These are deleterious chemicals and all the safety protocols must be
followed
Wafers characteristics:
(100) Si-P type, single side polished
2 Diameter
Resistivity 1-10 -cm
Thickness 254-306 m

Part One
Spin Coating
Cover the spinner with Aluminum foil and clean the spinner chuck with acetone and push the
chuck onto spindle. Take acetone and methanol in a beaker for rinsing the solvent. Rinse the
wafer in acetone for 30s and then in methanol for 30s and blow it dry using nitrogen gas. In
order to remove the water vapors bake the wafer at 115o C for 60s on a hot plate. Then, place
the wafer on the chuck with the wafer center perfectly aligned with the center of the chuck.
Drop HMDS adhesion promoter from dropper bottle onto the wafer and spin the wafer at 4000
rpm for 30s so that it forms a uniform adhesion layer. Drop Microposit S1813 resist from the
dropper bottle on the wafer that is coated and spin the wafer at 2000 rpm for 30s in order to
form a uniform layer.

Image11. Spin Coating tool

Now soft bake the wafer that is bake the wafer at 115o C and measure the thickness of the
resist on the wafer using elipsometer. Now, again take the wafer and rinse it in acetone
followed by methanol and then blowing it dry using nitrogen gas. Now repeat the experiment
for rpm 2000-5000 in steps of 500 rpm. Now plot the graph of thickness vs 1/rpm 2

Part Two
Patterning: Rinse the wafer by dipping it in a beaker containing DI water. Coat a 1m thickness
resist on the wafer. Bake the wafers at 115o C for 60s. Then we expose the wafer using MJB3
mask aligner we observe the effects of under and over exposure in this lab. The proper way to
use the mask aligner is explained in detail above. Take a patterned mask and expose the first
wafer at an exposure energy of A = 6.1 mW/cm2 10 sec = 61 mJ/cm2. The optimum energy of
microposit S1813 is 150 mJ/cm2. Expose the second wafer at exposure energy A = 6.1 mW/cm2
15 sec = 91.5 mJ/cm2. Keep doing this for all the wafers by increasing exposure time in 5
second units.
Bake the wafer for 115o C. This is called post exposure baking. Now, using a Teflon
holder, immerse the wafer in developer solution and stir it rigorously for 30s. Immediately after
this, rinse the wafer in DI water for 30s and blow dry using nitrogen gas by placing the wafer on

a cloth. Observe the wafers under a microscope and record the pattern integrity. We should
check for pattern integrity, clearance of the exposed area from resist. Based on the different
exposure energy there will be different pattern deformity in different wafers. Note down the
deformities and comment on how sharp and precise the pattern is generated on the wafer.
Prepare a table describing pattern generated in each wafer.

Readings:
(Thickness in angstrom units )

Sr.
no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

RPM

Wafer#

#1(thickness) #2(thickness) #3(thickness) mean

2000
2000
2000
2500
2500
2500
3000
3000
3000
3500
3500
3500
4000
4000
4000
4500
4500
4500
5000
5000
5000

F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7

19734
19059.3
18996.6
16970.4
16309
16318.7
14819.2
15144.2
14702.9
13919.6
13709
12452
11824.4
12457
12506.9
11515.67
12304.0
11851.5
10371.5
9242.23
9445.2

19716.6
19108.3
18928.3
17129.0
16279
16338
14818.9
15042.1
14698.8
13920.5
13843.7
12624.1
11754.3
12345.1
12496.0
11516.3
12296.6
11857.8
10323.9
9276.79
9427.6

19497
19103.6
19023.9
17036.3
16272.2
16341.1
14780.5
15145.9
14737.5
13896.1
13702.2
12580
11771.0
12493.3
12499.9
11502.15
12241.3
11881.8
10329.5
9291.56
9457.6

19649.2
19090.4
18982.93
17045.23
16286.73
16332.6
14806.2
15110.73
14713.07
13912.07
13751.63
12552.03
11783.23
12431.8
12500.93
11511.37
12280.63
11863.7
10341.63
9270.19
9443.47

Table showing pattern characteristics at different expose time

Exposure
Time(seconds)

Wafer
#

Pattern generated

10
15

F1
F2

20
25
30
40

F3
F4
F5
F6

50

F7

Zigzag edges, wavy end, unwanted residue

Zigzag edges, Residue on top, In between missing
edges
More cleaner, less or no residue
Excellent pattern, no residue
Over-exposure, rough edges
More rough edges, over-exposure, missing edges at
some place
Most exposed wafer of all, many unwanted residue

Comparison:
1. Resist thickness
As the rpm value is increased the thickness of the resist reduces
2. Exposure time
Few wafers(F1-F3) undergo under exposure while some wafers(F5-F7) were overexposed
and one wafer(F4) had excellent patterning over it

Result:
Thus, we saw that wafer F4 that was spin coated at 2500-3500-4500 rpm and exposed for 25
seconds had excellent patterning over it

Errors:
Outdated spin coating tool, modern more precise equipment could help improve results
Almost every step was timed. And, as there was human intervention in the process, the steps
were not completed for precise time. Performing steps for the precise required can improve the
results
In spin coating, abrupt increment and decrement of rpm to attain the required rpm value
generated wavy pattern over it and the resist was not evenly disperse. Thus being more careful
and reaching the required rpm by only increasing can make coating results better
more number of readings, at smaller time difference and rpm values, would provide more
precise result

Conclusion:
Thus, we performed resist coating and patterning on the wafer using above mentioned step.
We also saw that how important is exposing the wafer for precise time to obtain excellent
patterns.
References:
http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ee143/fa10/lectures/Lec_04.pdf
Experiment #3 manual
Slides by Dr. Celik butler
Video lecture by Dr. Nandita Dasgupta(IIT madras)