针对显影工艺中水的表面张力导致的高高宽比抗蚀剂图形的坍塌及黏连, 提出了一种基于微波加热的干燥技术来有效改善纳米抗蚀剂图形的干燥效果。该方法利用微波穿透光刻胶结构直接加热光刻胶图形间隙中残存的去离子水, 水分子吸收微波的光子能量迅速蒸发, 从而有效地抑制光刻胶图形的坍塌与黏连现象。利用提出的基于微波加热的干燥方法, 成功获取了高260 nm、宽16 nm的光刻胶线条组和直径为20 nm的光刻胶柱形阵列, 其中高高宽比线条组和由15 625根柱子组成的柱形阵列结构没有出现坍塌及黏连情况, 验证了在微波产生的交变电场作用下, 可以减小水分子团簇, 降低水的表面张力。

For the collapse and adhesion of photoresist with nano-structures due to the surface tension of deionized water in electron beam lithography, a drying method based on microwave heating is proposed to improve the quality of the photoresist with nano-structures. The method makes use of the microwave penetrate the photoresist to heat the water stored between resist patterns directly, and the water will evaporate with absorbing energy of microwave. Thus the collapse and adhesion of the photoresist with nano-structures can be avoided. The proposed method is used for drying photoresist lines with a height of 260 nm, width of 16 nm and photoresist pillars with the diameter of 20 nm in electron beam lithography and development. The results show that the lines and the array containing of 15 625 pillars are no collapse and adhesion, which demonstrates that the microwave with an alternating electric field can reduce the sizes of water clusters and the tension of deionized water dramatically.