APPLICATION OF PHOTODEGRADABLE POLYMERS TO IMAGING AND MICROFABRICATION TECHNOLOGIES - A REVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCH PAPERS IN THE LAST 4 YEARS [Review]

摘要

Random main chain scission and side-group splitting, which are initiated by irradiation on photodegradable polymers, cause characteristic changes on the polymer coatings (or films), i.e. brittlening, dissolution rate increase, volatilization, polarity or reactivity change. Most research works on photodegradable polymers have, so far, targeted to develop high performance resists for microlithography (positive resists by wet development, dry patterning of resists, and resist stripping), but the market is not so wide. Those polymers are applicable also to other imaging technology, such as direct platemaking, photoerasable toners for electrophotography, and information recording (e.g. bit-marking), and to precise microfabrication, including drilling, blanking, contamination cleaning, and imagewise metallization. The new application world of photodegradable polymers may be cultivated in the near future, and expand as wide as that of negative-working radiation curing which precedes just like a mirror image of positive-working photodegradation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A. [References: 87]