Coat-process-induced defects

Defects in ArF lithography, as in other optical lithographic technologies, can be categorized into three broad categories, namely, (i) intrinsic defects, (ii) particle defects, and (iii) process (coat, bake, and develop unit operations)-induced defects. While process-induced and intrinsic defects make up the bulk of the... 

To check whether the superior corrosion protection performance of a nanoreservoir-containing coating was related to its self-healing abihty, SVET experiments were performed. A typical current map over an intact sol gel film is depicted in Fig. 2.13a, illustrating the absence of local corrosion processes for both coatings. Artificial defects (200 pm in diameter) were formed on the surface of both coatings after 24 h of immersion in 0.05 M NaCl, as shown in Fig. 2.13b,f. Well-defined cathodic activity appeared at the induced defect on the alloy coated with the undoped hybrid film... 

Cerium ions have proved to be a very effective additive for silane coatings and clearly improved the corrosion protection of galvanised steel and aluminium alloys. These ions enhance the protective barrier properties and inhibit corrosion activity at induced defects. The presence of cerium ions seems to develop a self-healing effect, hindering the corrosion processes at defects. 

Despite such limitations, plasma-deposited a-C(N) H films were found to be used in a number of applications. The stress reduction induced by nitrogen incorporation [12] and consequent adhesion improvement, allowed the development of a-C(N) H antireflective coatings for Ge-based infrared detectors [13]. It was also found that N can electronically dope a-C H films, and can strongly decrease the defect density, which gives prospects on its use as a semiconductor material [14]. Nitrogen incorporation was also found to decrease the threshold electric field in electron-field emission process [15], making possible the use of a-C(N) H films as an overcoat on emission tips in flat-panel display devices [16]. 

In most elear eoating system, the drying induced phase separation is unwanted phenomena. Therefore formulators are careful about the selection of solvent to avoid the defect. However in some applieations, phase separation is needed to have desirable properties for the coating. In the eoating of adhesive layer of hot stamping foil, the layer should have discontinuous porous structure as shown in Figure 7.3.25. Humidified air can be used to control the process path. In most polymer-solvent coating systems, the water acted as... 

The main objectives of our experiments were to determine if the monolayer was still present after the evaporation process to determine if the SAM had undergone any modifications to establish if these changes are reversible to determine whether increased electrical defects in the SAM result from evaporation and to determine the nature of the perturbations induced by the copper coating. The SAMs were characterized both as deposited, and after the removal of the copper overlayer with nitric acid, using FT-RAIRS and electrochemistry. Control experiments were performed to confirm that the nitric acid solutions used for the stripping had no effect on either the organization or the coverage of the SAM. 

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