Quantum electrodynamical formulation of photochemical acid generation and its implications on optical lithography

TL;DR

This paper develops a quantum electrodynamical model for photochemical acid generation, providing a probabilistic framework that links quantum light interactions to stochastic feature formation in optical lithography.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum electrodynamics-based formulation of acid generation, connecting quantum light interactions with the statistical modeling of lithographic features.

Findings

Quantum electrodynamics accurately models acid generation probabilities.

Probabilistic deprotection density predicts feature formation variability.

Stochastic analysis reveals key characteristics of lithographic patterning.

Abstract

The photochemical acid generation is refined from the first principles of quantum electrodynamics. First, we briefly review the formulation of the quantum theory of light based on the quantum electrodynamics framework to establish the probability of acid generation at a given spacetime point. The quantum-mechanical acid generation is then combined with the deprotection mechanism to obtain a probabilistic description of the deprotection density directly related to feature formation in a photoresist. A statistical analysis of the random deprotection density is presented to reveal the leading characteristics of stochastic feature formation.