Electron-beam resist plasma developable

The pursuit of further miniaturization of electronic circuits has made submicrometer resolution Hthography a cmcial element in future computer engineering. LB films have long been considered potential candidates for resist appHcations, because conventional spin-coated photoresist materials have large pinhole densities and variations of thickness. In contrast, LB films are two-dimensional, layered, crystalline soHds that provide high control of film thickness and are impermeable to plasma down to a thickness of 40 nm (46). The electron beam polymerization of CO-tricosenoic acid monolayers has been mentioned. Another monomeric amphiphile used in an attempt to develop electron-beam-resist materials is a-octadecylacryUc acid (8). 

In recent years, there have been some reports on plasma developable photo (5) x-ray (6) and electron beam resists (7). Although the basic principle behind the three types of resists is similar, a plasma developable electron resist (PDE) is more difficult to formulate due to the following reasons (a) the... 

G.N. Taylor, L.E. Stillwagon, and T. Venkatesen, Gas phase functionalized plasma developed resists Initial concepts and results for electron beam exposure, J. Electrochem. Soc. 131, 1658 (1984) M.A. Hartney, R.R. Kunz, D.J. Ehrlich, and D.C. Shaver, Silylation processes for 193 nm excimer laser hthography, Proc. SPIE 1262, 119 (1990) M.A. Hartney and J.W. Thackeray, Sily lation processes for 193 nm lithography using acid catalyzed resists, Proc. SPIE 1672, 486 (1992) ... 

The conventional bilayer resist systems in which the top imaging layer (typically organosilicon polymer) also serves as an etch mask was first proposed by Hatzakis et al. in 1981, ostensibly for electron-beam lithography. Since then, a number of organosilicon resists for bilayer resist systems have been reported for use in near-UV, DUV, mid-UV, electron-beam, and x-ray applications, a good review of which has been provided by Ohnishi et al. In recent times, negative-tone resist systems and processes based on silicon-backbone polymers such as polysilanes,polysilynes, and plasma-deposited polymers have been developed for 193-nm lithography. 

Electron-beam irradiation breaks the acid anhydride linkage, thus restoring solubility to the irradiated areas. Several systems derived from that of Roberts have been studied [33, 34], Resistance to plasma and to developer solvent is improved by the anhydride crosslinking. 

A variation of the ARE process using a resistance heated source Instead of the electron beam heated source has been developed by Nath and Bunshah and is particularly useful for evaporation of low melting metals such as indium and tin where electron beam heating can cause splattering of the molten pool. The plasma Is generated by low energy electrons from a... 

This work reports the development of a polymeric/sol-gel route for the deposition of silicon carbide and silicon oxycarbide thin films for applications such as heat-, corrosion-, and wear-resistant coatings, coatings on fibers for controlling the interaction with the matrix in ceramic matrix composites, or films in electronic and optoelectronic devices. This method, in which the pre-ceramic films are converted to a ceramic coating either by a conventional high temperature annealing or by ion irradiation, is alternative to conventional methods such as chemical or physical vapor deposition (CVD, PVD), molecular beam epitaxy, sputtering, plasma spray, or laser ablation, which are not always practical or cost efficient. 

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