Patent ID: 11966165
Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD.
Field: Surface technology, coating (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC G  C | IPC C  G

Claim 0:
1. A method, comprising:
placing a substrate on a wafer stage of an immersion exposure tool;
providing a processing fluid, by an immersion hood, to a processing area, of the immersion exposure tool, corresponding to an area in an opening, of the immersion hood, between a bottom lens, of the immersion exposure tool, and the substrate,
wherein the bottom lens includes tapered sidewalls and straight sidewalls, and the immersion hood includes tapered sidewalls aligned with the tapered sidewalls of the bottom lens;

exposing one or more fields of the substrate to radiation through the bottom lens and the processing fluid to transfer a pattern to the one or more fields; and
using a hydrophobic coating, on the tapered sidewalls and straight sidewalls of the bottom lens, to reduce temperature variation of the bottom lens during exposure of the one or more fields to the radiation and to prevent direct contact between the processing fluid and at least a portion of the bottom lens,
wherein an angle of the tapered sidewalls of the bottom lens is based on at least two of:
an exposure field size range of the immersion exposure tool,
a size of one or more lens components included in upper portion and in a lower portion of the bottom lens, or
a size reduction in the pattern that is to be transferred to the substrate as the pattern is carried by the radiation from a project lens of the immersion exposure tool through the bottom lens.