Method for preventing the formation of a void in a bottom anti-reflective coating filling a via hole

1. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising the steps of:

forming a bottom anti-reflective coating in a via hole in an interlayer dielectric sufficiently to fill the via hole, said via hole exposing the semiconductor substrate and heating said bottom anti-reflective coating sufficiently to prevent a formation of voids in the bottom anti-reflective coating, wherein the bottom antireflective coating comprises a cross-linkable resin, a chromophore, a cross-linking agent and an organic solvent;

heating said bottom anti-reflective coating sufficiently to prevent a formation of voids in the bottom anti-reflective coating;

disposing an acid diffusion material on the heated bottom anti-reflective coating, wherein the acid diffusion material comprises from 1 to about 60 wt % of a hydrophilic polymer, from 1 to about 20 wt % of an acid, and from 1 to about 99 wt % of said solvent;

after the step of heating said bottom anti-reflective coating, and separately from the step of heating said bottom anti-reflective coating, heating the heated bottom anti-reflective coating and said acid diffusion material to form a cross-link layer between the heated bottom anti-reflective coating and said acid diffusion material;

removing the acid diffusion material that remains on the cross-link layer; and

etching the cross-link layer, the bottom anti-reflective coating and the interlayer dielectric sufficiently to form a trench extending from an upper portion of the via hole.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising forming a photoresist pattern on the cross-link layer to define a trench formation region thereon, and wherein the step of etching the cross-link layer, the bottom anti-reflective coating and the interlayer dielectric further comprises using the photoresist pattern as an etching mask to form said trench.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bottom antireflective coating further contains a surfactant.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bottom antireflective coating has a composition comprising from 1 to about 60 wt % of said cross-linkable resin, from 1 to about 30 wt % of said chromophore, from 1 to about 30 wt % of said cross-linking agent and from 1 to about 99 wt % of said organic solvent.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the bottom antireflective coating comprises said surfactant in an amount of from 0.001 to about 10 wt %.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the organic solvent comprises propylene glycol methyl ether acetate (PGMEA), propylene glycol monomethyl ether (PGME), N-bromoacetamide (NBA), EL, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said bottom antireflective coating and said acid diffusion material are heated sufficiently to react at least one species in an upper part of said bottom anti-reflective coating with an active species in said acid diffusion material.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein heating said bottom anti-reflective coating and said acid diffusion material causes hydrogen species in the acid diffusion material to diffuse toward the surface of the bottom anti-reflective coating and hydroxide or equivalent species in the bottom anti-reflective coating to be activated, so that the hydrogen and the hydroxide or equivalent species neutralize each other, thereby forming the cross-link layer.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein heating said bottom anti-reflective coating and said acid diffusion material causes said acid in the acid diffusion material to react with said crosslinking agent in the bottom anti-reflective coating, thereby forming the cross-link layer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein said cross-linkable resin comprises a novolac resin.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein said chromophore comprises a naphthalene or anthracene based chromophore.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the bottom antireflective coating and the acid diffusion material are deposited respectively with a thickness of 10 to 500 nm.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of heating said bottom anti-reflective coating causes said bottom anti-reflective coating to flow.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the bottom anti-reflective coating is heated at a temperature of 40 to 200° C. for 50 to 100 seconds.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the bottom anti-reflective coating and the acid diffusion material are heated at a temperature of 100 to 300° C. for 50 to 100 seconds.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acid diffusion material further contains a surfactant.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the surfactant in the acid diffusion material is present in an amount of from 0.001 to about 10 wt %.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the acid comprises hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, acetic acid substituted with from 1 to 3 halogen atoms, tosylic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, mesylic acid, trifluoromethylsulfonic acid, or a mixture thereof.

19. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of forming said interlayer dielectric on said semiconductor substrate; and forming said via hole in the interlayer dielectric to expose a portion of the substrate.

20. A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a substrate;

sequentially forming a first interlayer dielectric, an etch stop layer and a second interlayer dielectric on the substrate;

selectively etching the second interlayer dielectric, the etch stop layer and the first interlayer dielectric to form a via hole exposing a portion of the substrate;

forming a bottom anti-reflective coating in the via hole and on the second interlayer dielectric sufficiently to fill the via hole, wherein the bottom anti-reflective coating comprises a cross-linkable resin, a chromophore, a cross-linking agent, and an organic solvent;

heating the bottom anti-reflective coating sufficiently to prevent a formation of voids in the bottom and-reflective coating;

forming an acid diffusion material on the heated bottom anti-reflective coating, wherein the acid diffusion material comprises from 1 to about 60 wt % of a hydrophilic polymer, from 1 to about 20 wt % of an acid, and from 1 to about 99 wt % of a solvent;

after the step of heating said bottom anti-reflective coating, and separately from the step of heating said bottom anti-reflective coating, heating the acid diffusion material and the heated bottom anti-reflective coating to form a cross-link layer between the heated bottom anti-reflective coating and the acid diffusion material;

removing the acid diffusion material that remains on the cross-link layer; and

etching the cross-link layer, the bottom anti-reflective layer and the second interlayer dielectric to form a trench connected to the via hole.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the bottom antireflective coating has a composition comprising from 1 to about 60 wt % of said cross-linkable resin, from 1 to about 30 wt % of said chromophore, from 1 to about 30 wt % of said cross-linking agent and from 1 to about 99 wt % of said organic solvent.

22. The method of claim 20 , wherein said heating the acid diffusion material and the bottom anti-reflective coating causes hydrogen species in the acid diffusion material to diffuse toward the surface of the bottom anti-reflective coating and hydroxide or equivalent species in the bottom anti-reflective coating to be activated, so that the hydrogen and the hydroxide or equivalent species neutralize each other, thereby forming the cross-link layer.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein said heating the acid diffusion material and the bottom and-reflective coating causes the acid in the acid diffusion material to react with said crosslinking agent in the bottom anti-reflective coating, thereby forming the cross-link layer.

24. The method of claim 20 , wherein said cross-linkable resin comprises a novolac resin.

25. The method of claim 20 , wherein the acid comprises hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydrofluoric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, acetic acid, acetic acid substituted with from 1 to 3 halogen atoms, tosylic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, mesylic acid, trifluoromethylsulfonic acid, or a mixture thereof.