Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography plays a crucial role in the semiconductor industry, enabling the shrinkage of transistor sizes and sustaining Moore’s law. However, the high cost of EUV light limits the number of available photons for high-volume wafer manufacturing. To maxi
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Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography plays a crucial role in the semiconductor industry, enabling the shrinkage of transistor sizes and sustaining Moore’s law. However, the high cost of EUV light limits the number of available photons for high-volume wafer manufacturing. To maximize the utilization of each incoming photon, metal-oxide resist (MOR) has emerged as a promising candidate to replace conventional chemicallyamplified resist due to its higher absorption coefficient when exposed to EUV light. An open-source Monte Carlo based simulator is used in this study to model electron scattering within the photoresist materials. When EUV light strikes the photoresist, initial high-energy photoelectrons are generated, triggering a series of scattering events that produce a cascade of secondary electrons (SEs). These SEs possess energies capable of altering the chemistry of resist materials, leading to pattern formation in the following processes. In this study, we propose a novel method of applying an electric field to the resist layer to enhance pattern performance under a fixed EUV dose. Simulation results demonstrate that this approach creates an anisotropic electron blur extended in the 𝑧 direction perpendicular to the resist surface) without compromising much the resolution in the 𝑥 and 𝑦 directions (parallel to the resist surface). Additionally, an increase in SE yield is observed. The optimal electric field strength, identified as -400 MV/m for MOR, results in an 11.93% increase in 𝑧-direction blur and a 3.41% increase in SE yield per absorbed photon. Moreover, the asymmetry of 𝑧-direction blur counteracts the EUV light absorption near the surface and contributes to more chemical conversions deeper in the resist.