The global semiconductor market, with a size of 527.88 billion dollars in 2021, is one of the most profitable and largest ones that influences several digital and emerging technologies such as automotive, computers, tablets, telecommunications, etc. Unfortunately, the semiconductor manufacturing process entails a lot of toxic materials and/or materials causing environmental deterioration.
RESIN GREEN aims to develop green and environmentally friendly materials with high efficiency for photolithography, one of the most critical steps in semiconductor manufacturing. It is expected that by the end of the project, we will have developed three green materials platforms with high sensitivity, low line edge roughness, and high resolution (TRL4). The aforementioned technologies can be exploited almost directly by the industry, taking into consideration that STMicroelectronics is already a partner in the consortium, and ASML has already expressed interest.
In this context, we will develop new resist materials to eliminate or drastically reduce the use of organic solvents and aqueous alkaline solutions currently used in the lithographic process at the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The lithographical process steps that demand the significant amounts of solvents are the spin coating solution of the photoresist as well as the development process. We target to replace the standard organic solvents used in spin coating and the highly alkaline TMAH solutions used in development primarily with water. Greener organic solvents and very dilute basic developers will only be considered, if necessary, for meeting high-performance requirements. We aim to investigate both bio-sourced materials and new synthetic polymer-based photoresist platforms suitable for exposure at 193 nm, 248 nm, I-line and EUV and achieve significant breakthroughs . In addition, e-beam lithography will be considered, especially for evaluating the high-resolution potential of the proposed resist materials.
Furthermore, RESIN GREEN aims to demonstrate performance towards industrial viability of the greener resist materials to be developed. In this context advanced metrology techniques based on AFM-SEM and AI models will be elaborated and extensively used. Finally, the expected green outcome from the use of the new resist platforms will be evaluated and quantified.
