New chemistry in the design of chemically amplified positive resists

摘要

The quest for high performance positive deep-UV resist is a significant challenge. In this paper we discuss a new approach to chemically amplified positive resists involving the use of a new and versatile class of polymeric dissolution inhibitors. Methacrylate terpolymers originally designed as chemically amplified positive resists for printed circuit board technology have been found to form stable, one-phase mixtures with a variety of phenolic resins. These new dissolution inhibitors based on MMA-TBMA-MAA terpolymers have unusual and useful properties, including excellent optical transmission at 248 nm, high glass transition temperatures, and dissolution inhibition/promotion power which can be tailored to accommodate the dissolution properties of the particular phenolic resin being used.