Improvement of Environment Stability of an i-Line Chemically Amplified Photoresist

摘要

An i-Line chemically amplified(ICA)thick film positive resist is reported in this paper.The impact of process conditions on photoresist performance was investigated.Pre-apply bake temperature and post exposure bake temperature affect acid diffusion and deblocking reactions,thus playing an integral role in defining the resist profile.Both pre-apply bake delay and post exposure delay(PED)affect critical dimension(CD)variation,but PED is more sensitive to contact with airborne contaminants.Different polymers and different photo-acid generators(PAG)are also illustrated in this work.By optimizing the structure and concentration of key components,an ICA resist with good environment stability and excellent lithographic performance was demonstrated.