Shin-etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.

Tamotsu Watanabe

Takanobu Takeda

Satoshi Watanabe

Ryuji Koitabashi

Keiichi Masunaga

Osamu Watanabe

Akinobu Tanaka

Youichi Ohsawa

A chemically amplified negative resist composition comprises a polymer comprising recurring hydroxystyrene units and recurring styrene units having electron withdrawing groups substituted thereon. In forming a pattern having a fine feature size of less than 0.1 &#x3bc;m, the composition exhibits a high resolution in that a resist coating formed from the composition can be processed into such a fine size pattern while the formation of bridges between pattern features is minimized.

Chemically amplified negative resist composition and patterning process

In a chemically amplified resist composition comprising a base resin, an acid generator, and a solvent, 1,400-5,000 pbw of the solvent is present per 100 pbw of the base resin, and the solvent comprises at least 60 wt % of PGMEA and ethyl lactate, and 0.2-20 wt % of a high-boiling solvent. A resist pattern is formed by coating the resist composition on a substrate, prebaking, patternwise exposure, post-exposure baking, development, and heat treatment.

Patterning process

Provided are a preparation method of a resist composition which enables stabilization of a dissolution performance of a resist film obtained from the resist composition thus prepared; and a resist composition obtained by the preparation process and showing small lot-to-lot variations in degradation over time. The process of the present invention is for preparing a chemically amplified resist composition containing a binder, an acid generator, a nitrogenous basic substance and a solvent and it has steps of selecting, as the solvent, a solvent having a peroxide content not greater than an acceptable level, and mixing constituent materials of the resist composition in the selected solvent.

Preparation process of chemically amplified resist composition

A photomask blank has a resist film comprising (A) a base resin, (B) an acid generator, and (C) a basic compound. The resist film further comprises (D) a polymer comprising recurring units having a side chain having a fluorinated hydrocarbon group which contains a carbon atom to which a hydroxyl group is bonded and vicinal carbon atoms bonded thereto, the vicinal carbon atoms having in total at least two fluorine atoms bonded thereto. Addition of polymer (D) ensures uniform development throughout the resist film, enabling to form a resist pattern having high CD uniformity.

Photomask blank, resist pattern forming process, and photomask preparation process

A polymer for use in photoresist compositions is synthesized by effecting polymerization reaction to form a polymerization product mixture and subjecting the mixture to molecular weight fractionation by a liquid phase separation technique using a good solvent and a poor solvent. The fractionation step is iterated at least twice, and one iteration of fractionation includes adding a good solvent which is different from the good solvent added in the other iteration of fractionation.

Synthesis of photoresist polymer

There is disclosed a resist patterning process with a minimum line width of 65 nanometers or less may be formed by using a resist composition containing a polymer, as a base polymer of a chemically-amplified resist composition, composed of a styrene unit whose hydroxyl group is protected by an acid labile group, and an indene unit, and/or an acenaphthalene unit, wherein the polymer has the weight-average molecular weight of 4,000 to 7,000, and in particular, 4,500 to 5,500. One of the currently existing problems to be solved is the line edge roughness. To solve this problem by an acid-generator and a basic compound, there is a problem of the trade-off relationship with a resolution power. There can be provided a resist composition having a high resolution containing a base polymer such as hydroxystyrene that is protected by an acid labile group, a resist patterning process with a pattern rule of 65 nanometers or less having a reduced line edge roughness.

Resist patterning process and manufacturing photo mask

A chemically amplified positive resist composition comprises a compound having an amine oxide structure as a basic component, a base resin, a photoacid generator, and an organic solvent. The resist composition exhibits a high resolution, significantly prevents a line pattern from collapsing after development, and has improved etch resistance.

Resist composition and patterning process

There is disclosed a polymer at least comprising repeating units represented by the following general formulae (1) and (2), and the polymer having a mass average molecular weight of 1,000 to 500,000. There can be provided a polymer, and a resist composition, in particular, a chemically amplified positive resist composition that exhibit higher resolution than conventional positive resist compositions, good in-plane dimension uniformity of developed resist patterns on substrates such as mask blanks and high etching resistance. 

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Joetsu, Japan

Tamotsu Watanabe