Toyo Soda Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Masaaki Todoko

Mitsutoshi Fukuda

Hiroyuki Watanabe

Masazumi Hasegawa

A method for producing fine patterns is disclosed, comprising spin-coating a photosensitive resin solution as an upper layer, which comprises a diazonium salt as a photobleachable agent, water and/or an organic solvent, and a polymer, on a photoresist layer as a lower layer and then light-exposing both the upper layer and the lower layer, wherein the polymer in the upper layer has a structural unit shown by formula (I): ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1, R.sub.2, and R.sub.3 each represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a halogen atom, or a nitrile group; R.sub.4 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, a halogen atom, a hydroxyl group, or a carboxyl group; and X represents a hydrogen atom, an alkali metal, an alkaline earth metal, or an ammonium group. According to another embodiment of this invention, a method for producing fine patterns is disclosed, comprising spin-coating a photosensitive resin solution as an upper layer, which comprises a diazonium salt as a photobleachable agent, water and/or an organic solvent, and a polymer, on a photoresist layer as a lower layer, wherein a counter anion of the diazonium salt is a functional group of the polymer in the photosensitive resin. According to this invention, a light of low contrast can be increased to one of high contrast without requiring complicated steps, and patterns of less than 1 .mu.m can be produced with good precision.

Method for producing fine patterns utilizing specific polymeric

A process for producing cyclized isoprene polymers having a dispersion degree not higher than 2, which comprises living-polymerizing isoprene monomers using as initiator an organometal compound which is expressed by a general formula RM (where R is alkyl, aryl or aralkyl group and M is lithium, sodium or potassium atom), to obtain an isoprene polymer having a dispersion degree not larger than 1.1, which is close to a unit dispersion, and bringing the obtained polymer into contact with a catalyst composed of a boron trifluoride-ether complex and a carboxylic acid expressed by a general formula Cl.sub.3-n H.sub.n CCOOH (where n is an integer ranging from 0 to 3) under a mild condition. The cyclized polymer is very useful for negative resists in integrated circuits.

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Yamaguchi, Japan

Masaaki Todoko