Architectural Effects on Reaction-Diffusion Kinetics in Molecular Glass Photoresists

Published

April 20, 2010

Author(s)

Vivek M. Prabhu, Shuhui Kang, Christopher L. Soles, Christopher K. Ober, Jing Sha, Jin-Kyun Lee, Peter V. Bonnesen

Abstract

Understanding acid reaction-diffusion kinetics is crucial for controlling the lithographic performance of chemically amplified photoresists. In this work, we study how the molecular architectures of positive-tone chemically amplified molecular glass resists can affect acid reaction-diffusion kinetics during post exposure bake. We compare the acid reaction-diffusion kinetics of a common photoacid generator in molecular glass resists with chemical similarity to poly(4-hydroxystyrene), and designed with branched and ring architectures. An in situ FTIR method was used to measure reaction rate, acid trapping behavior, and acid diffusivity as a function of post exposure bake temperature. We have found that the acid kinetics performance in molecular glass resists is correlated to the film molar densities which are dependent on the architectures of the molecular glass molecules. These results allow a modeling analysis of latent image formation in molecular glass resists, which is critical for resolution and line edge roughness of pattern features. A comparison between experimentally measured and theoretically predicted diffusion lengths in one molecular glass resist system was made. Since little is understood about acid diffusion in molecular glass resists, this paper is an early report of this process across a variety of materials and provides some insight into the molecular design of photoresists for high resolution lithography.

Citation

Chemistry of Materials

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

photoresist, EUV, lithography, molecular resist, glass

Citation

Prabhu, V. , Kang, S. , Soles, C. , Ober, C. , Sha, J. , Lee, J. and Bonnesen, P. (2010), Architectural Effects on Reaction-Diffusion Kinetics in Molecular Glass Photoresists, Chemistry of Materials, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=904649 (Accessed October 14, 2025)