## ELECTRONIC DEVICE MANUFACTURE 

The present invention includes new methods for manu› facturing a semiconductor device. Preferred methods of the invention include depositing a photoresist on a semiconduc› tor substrate surface followed by imaging and development of resist coating layer; applying a curable organic or inor› ganic composition over the resist relief image; etching to provide a relief image of the resist encased by the curable composition; and removing the resist material whereby the curable organic or inorganic composition remains in a relief image of increased pitch relative to the previously developed resist image. 

Efforts are constant to reduce sizes of integrated circuits. To achieve such size reductions, the sizes of the constituent features, such as electrical devices and interconnect line widths, that form the integrated circuits are also constantly being decreased. Efforts to reduce feature size is especially prevalent in memory circuits or devices e.g. dynamic ran› dom access memories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs ), and ferroelectric (FE) memories. By decreasing the sizes of constituent electrical devices and the conducting lines that access then, the sizes of the memory devices incorporating these features can be decreased. Such size reductions also can enable increasing storage capacities. 

Photolithography is commonly used to form features, such as conductive lines, on a substrate. The concept of pitch can be used to describe the size of these features. As referred to herein, pitch is defined as the distance between an identical point in two neighboring features. These features are typically defined by spacings between adjacent features, which are typically filled by a material, such as an insulator. As a result, pitch can be viewed as the sum of the width of a feature and of the width of the space separating that feature from an adjacent or neighboring feature. 

Due to factors such as optics and radiation wavelength, however, photolithography techniques can have a minimum pitch below which a particular photolithographic technique cannot reliably form features. This can restrict feature size reduction. 

It would be desirable to have new methods to provide electronic device features of decreased dimensions. 

We now provide new methods for fabricating a semicon› ductor device. Methods of the invention can enable produc› tion of highly resolved features ( e.g. interconnections such as circuits) of reduced dimension. 

In one aspect, methods of the invention may comprise: 

(i) depositing an imageable material (e.g. photoresist) on a substrate surface (e.g. semiconductor wafer optionally overcoated with an organic and/or inorganic layer(s)); 

(ii) imaging and developing the imageable material to provide a relief image (e.g. photoresist relief image); and 

(iii) applying a curable or hardenable organic or inorganic composition over the relief image; 

(iv) curing the curable composition such as by flood 55 exposure of activating radiation and/thermal treatment wherein a hardening reaction of composition component(s) can occur, which hardening may be promoted by acid that migrates from the encased imageable material relief image; 

(v) treatment (e.g. etch such as with a gaseous plasma which may include oxygen, and which may include a reactive ion etch, or by development such as by treatment with an aqueous alkaline developer composition) to provide a composite relief image comprising the imageable material encased by organic or inorganic composition; 

(vi) removing the imageable material. Preferably, upon such removal, the curable or hardenable organic or inorganic 

compos1t10n remains in a relief image of increased pitch relative to the previously developed imageable material. 

In preferred aspects, such methods include only a single exposure to patterned radiation (e.g. 248 nm or 193 nm radiation). In additional preferred aspects, such methods do not include any chemical-mechanical processing (CMP) steps. 

In further preferred aspects, the composite ( comprising the imageable material encased by organic or inorganic composition) is substantially free of the curable composition on the top surface of the imageable material. As referred to herein, "substantially free" indicates that the top 10 nm of the composite relief image contains than less than 15, 10 or 5 weight percent of the curable organic or inorganic com- position (also referred to as herein as the overcoating composition). 

In additional preferred aspects, step (v) of the above method comprises exposing the composite to activating radiation to permit hardening of the curable composition and then development to remove the imageable material. 

Preferred imageable materials and curable compositions for use in the invention include compositions that contain one or more organic components ( e.g. one or more organic resins). Preferred imageable materials and curable compo- sitions may be applied by spin coating. 

Preferred imageable compositions are photoresists includ› ing those resists that may suitably imaged with 248 nm or 193 nm radiation. 

As discussed further below, particularly photoresist including those that contain or more components that can inhibit leaching of photo generated acid through top coating layers regions, such as a component that has 1) Si substi› tution, 2) fluorine substitution, 3) is a hyper-branched poly› mer, and/or is 4) a polymeric particle, as disclosed in U.S. 2006/0246373. 

Particularly preferred photoresists for use in accordance with the invention may comprise a diffusable acidic com› ponent which has sufficient diffusing length to induce cross› linking (includes any type of hardening) of the overcoated curable composition. An exemplary diffusable acidic com› ponent is triflic acid. 

Additionally, a separate top coat or barrier layer compo- sition that is positioned over the photoresist may be employed and can serve to restrict upward leaching of acid (such as photogenerated acid). Suitable topcoat composi› tions and the use thereof are disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication 2006/0105272 to Gallagher et al. Suitable top› coat compositions may contain an organic silicon resin such as disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication 2006/0105272. 

Preferred curable compositions (also sometimes referred to herein as overcoating compositions) for use in accordance with the invention may include compositions that comprise a silicon-containing component such as a silicon-containing resin optionally in combination with one or more cross› linkers that can react in the presence of acid. The resin component itself suitably may be reactive (curable) in the presence of acid thereby obviating the need for a separate crosslinker component. In such preferred systems, the cur› able composition can crosslink or otherwise cure in the presence of acid (including photogenerated acid) that migrates from the imageable material. Preferably, the acid that migrates from the imageable material migrates laterally into the curable composition to induce crosslinking, suitably primarily in a lateral direction. Preferred curable composi- tion may comprise one or more components ( e.g. one or more resins) that contain functional groups which serve as crosslinking sites, including for instance silanol sites, 

