Plasma developing, lithographic resists

In formulating a plasma developable electron resist (PDE), NVC, DPAE, MAM and ODMA have been evaluated as monomers along with PC1S, PS, PBD and PTCEM as base polymers. Aside from lithographic performance, the main issues concerning the formulation of PDE are the sublimation or vaporization of monomers under vacuum and the compatibility of the monomer with the base polymer. 

In this work, we provide dry-process plasma etch rate ratios versus a standard for an expanded list of novel vinyl polymeric resists and commerical photoresists. The novel vinyl resists have been synthesized as part of a larger resist development program aimed towards the development of improved x-ray and e-beam lithographic resists (6). 

In the high-tech microelectronics area, many opportunities exist for developing new or improved polymers for dielectrics, plasma etch resistance barriers, lithographic resists, insulators/connectors, liquid crystal systems, etc, where, simultaneously, adhesion to various surfaces, water permeability, temperature stability and other properties must not be limiting. Polymers for biomedical, separations, and composites likewise, provide great opportunity for synthetic advances. There is no doubt in our mind, an enormous amount of innovation can continue to flow out of polymer synthesis research. 

A chemical pattern with precise surface chemistry and well-defined lateral dimension is a necessary platform to further advance the understanding of the self-assembly of block copolymer on the chemical patterns as well as improve the self-assembly quality. Nealey and his group developed a technique to generate chemical prepattems based on a lithographically defined resist strucmre and subsequent plasma surface modification. For example, a well-defined chemical prepattem was accomplished by first grafting PS-r-PMMA bmshes to a silicon substrate, covering it with an EUV resist (PMMA), and then creating a stripe pattern in the photoresist by EUV interference... 

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