Applied Electron Corporation

Jayaram Krishnaswamy

George J Collins

A process for large area hardening of photoresists or polymer films placed on substrates is disclosed. The process requires the use of a short duration (&lt;1 us.) pulsed electron beam produced in soft vacuum by an abnormal glow discharge. The pulsed electron beam interacts with the patterned photoresist/polymer resist so as to harden or stabilize the patterns thereon by electron induced cross-linking. The use of a soft vacuum environment allows for both thermal as well as chemically induced hardening.

Wide area soft vacuum abnormal glow electron beam discharge hardening

A cold cathode glow discharge electron gun operating in the abnormal glow region produces a wide area collimated electron beam employed for flood exposure of thin film materials through electron beam transmission masks, resulting in spatially localized exposure and patterning of the thin film materials.

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Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Jayaram Krishnaswamy