US Patent Application 18361878. PATTERN FIDELITY ENHANCEMENT simplified abstract

PATTERN FIDELITY ENHANCEMENT

Organization Name

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Inventor(s)

Yu-Tien Shen of Tainan City (TW)

Ya-Wen Yeh of Taipei City (TW)

Wei-Liang Lin of Hsin-Chu City (TW)

Ya Hui Chang of Hsinchu City (TW)

Yung-Sung Yen of New Taipei City (TW)

Wei-Hao Wu of Hsinchu City (TW)

Li-Te Lin of Hsinchu (TW)

Ru-Gun Liu of Hsinchu County (TW)

Kuei-Shun Chen of Hsinchu City (TW)

PATTERN FIDELITY ENHANCEMENT - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 18361878 titled 'PATTERN FIDELITY ENHANCEMENT

Simplified Explanation

The present disclosure describes a method for semiconductor manufacturing.

• The method involves forming a hard mask layer over a substrate.
• The substrate has one or more regions that will undergo a treatment process.
• A resist layer is formed over the hard mask layer.
• The resist layer is patterned to create multiple openings without concave corners.
• An opening expanding process is performed to enlarge at least one of the openings in the resist layer.
• The openings in the resist layer are then transferred to the hard mask layer.
• Finally, the treatment process is performed on the one or more regions in the substrate through the openings in the hard mask layer.

Original Abstract Submitted

The present disclosure provides a method for semiconductor manufacturing in accordance with some embodiments. The method includes forming a hard mask layer over a substrate, the substrate having one or more regions to receive a treatment process, forming a resist layer over the hard mask layer, patterning the resist layer to form a plurality of openings in the resist layer, each of the openings free of concave corners, performing an opening expanding process to enlarge at least one of the openings in the resist layer, transferring the openings in the resist layer to the hard mask layer, and performing the treatment process to the one or more regions in the substrate through the openings in the hard mask layer.