Low temperature plasma-enhanced ALD enables cost-effective spacer defined double patterning (SDDP)

The inherent advantages of the Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PEALD) technology—excellent conformality and within wafer uniformity, no loading effect—overcome the limitations in this domain of the standard PECVD technique for spacer deposition. The low temperature process capability of PEALD silicon oxide enables direct spacer deposition on photoresist, thus suppressing the need of a patterned template hardmask to design the spacers. By decreasing the number of deposition and patterning steps, this so-called Direct Spacer Defined Double Patterning (DSDDP) integration reduces cost and complexity of the conventional SDDP approach. A successful integration is reported for 32 nm half-pitch polysilicon lines. The performances are promising, especially from the lines, which result from the PEALD spacers: Critical Dimension Uniformity (CDU) of 1.3 nm and Line Width Roughness (LWR) of 2.0 nm.