General mechanism of patterned resist polymer photo-oxidative degradation

1 General mechanism of patterned resist polymer photo-oxidative degradation 

While many excellent reviews and books on the photo-oxidative degradation of polymers have been published, in this book, we concentrate on reactions 

Okoroanyanwu, P. Kunze, K. A1 Shamery, J. Romero, and J. Bernard, Impact of photoinduced species in O2 containing gases on lithographic patterning at 193 nm wavelength, Proc. SPIE 4691, 746 (2002). 

It has been reported that atomic oxygen 0( P) reacts with almost all polymers (PH), causing surface erosion (etching and material loss)  

A polymer mass loss rate of 10 kgh /area and an activation energy of 21.1 kJ/mol for atomic oxygen-exposed poly(methyl methacrylate) was reported by Whitaker et al. The mass loss rate was found to be directly related to the exposure area and to be independent of sample thickness. 

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