This handbook gives readers a close look at the entire technology of printing very high resolution and high density integrated circuit (IC) patterns into thin resist process transfer coatings - including optical lithography, electron beam, ion beam, and X-ray lithography. The book's main theme is the special printing process needed to achieve volume high density IC chip production, especially in the Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) industry. The book leads off with a comparison of various lithography methods, covering the three major patterning parameters of line/space, resolution, line edge and pattern feature dimension control. The book's explanation of resist and resist process equipment technology may well be the first practical description of the relationship between the resist process and equipment parameters. The basics of resist technology are completely covered - including an entire chapter on resist process defectivity and the potential yield limiting effect on device production. Each alternative lithographic technique and testing method is considered and evaluated: basic metrology including optical, scanning-electron-microscope (SEM) techniques and electrical test devices, along with explanations of actual printing tools and their design, construction and performance. The editor devotes an entire chapter to today's sophisticated, complex electron-beam printers, and to the emerging X-ray printing technology now used in high-density CMOS devices. Energetic ion particle printing is a controllable, steerable technology that does not rely on resist, and occupies a final section of the handbook. Key Features: Explains the technology behind lithographic aligner tools, from UV steppers to e-beam tools, to exotic ion-beam and X-ray; Provides rarely published data on automation of tools along with basic vibrational analysis principles; Includes sections on product development, economic factors, marketing, and current semiconductor fab status; Covers the entire field and all pattern printing options, comparing one technology with another; Practical - helps engineers choose among various lithographic technologies to use for specific applications. CONTENTS: Issues and Trends Affecting Lithography Tool Selection Strategy; Resist Technology: Design, Processing and Applications; Lithography Process Monitoring and Defect Detection; Techniques and Tools for Photo Metrology; Techniques and Tools for Optical Lithography; Microlithography Tool Automation; Electron Beam ULSI Applications; Rational Vibration and Structural Dynamics for Lithographic Tool Installations; Applications of Ion Microbe Lithography and Direct Processing; X-Ray Lithography.

Table of Contents

Issues and Trends Affecting Lithography Tool Selection Strategy; Resist Technology: Design, Processing and Applications; Lithography Process Monitoring and Defect Detection; Techniques and Tools for Photo Metrology; Techniques and Tools for Optical Lithography; Microlithography Tool Automation; Electron Beam ULSI Applications; Rational Vibration and Structural Dynamics for Lithographic Tool Installations; Applications of Ion Microbe Lithography and Direct Processing; X-Ray Lithography.