Resist materials for advanced lithography

Increasing the understanding of the fundamental resist material characteristics is a necessary preamble to the development of resists with improved resolution and line edge roughness. Material characteristics will not only influence resist sensitivity and resolution, but also may influence the critical dimension control of the lithography process through its effects on line edge roughness (LER). Polymers with controlled molecular weights and polydispersities as well as several non-polymeric resist materials were prepared and studied. This entailed preparing novel derivatives of these non-polymeric materials that were compatible with photoimaging as positive acid catalyzed resists. Examples are presented where non-polymeric resist materials were isolated into single well-defined components that could be compared to mixtures of similar composition. Results are presented on materials properties such as surface roughness and resist resolution. Included in the results are examples of non-polymeric materials that are capable of sub 100-nm resolution as positive resists.