28 research outputs found
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Understanding the mechanism of base development of hydrogen silsesquioxane
There have been numerous studies of electron beam exposed hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) development conditions in order to improve the developer contrast. For TMAH based development, improvements were made by going to higher TMAH normalities and heating the developer. Yang and Berggren showed development of electron beam exposed (HSQ) by NaOH with added Na salts (various anions) significantly improves the contrast. Here, we study the contrast and etching rates of 100 keV exposed HSQ in NaOH in the presence of LiCl, NaCl, and KCl salts and use this as a segway to understand the mechanisms governing contrast during development HSQ development. The basic mechanism of development of HSQ can be understood by comparing to etching of quartz in basic solutions. Hydroxide ions act as nucleophiles which attack silicon. When a silicon-oxygen bond of the Si-O-Si matrix is broken, Si-O{sup -} and Si-OH are formed which can reversibly react to form the original structure. When a Si-H bond is broken via reaction with hydroxide, Si-O{sup -} and H{sub 2} gas are formed. Salts can change the etching rates as a function of dose in a non-linear fashion to increase etch contrast. Figs. 1, 2, and 3 show contrast curves for HSQ developed in 0.25 N sodium hydroxide and with the addition of NaCl, LiCl and KCl salts at several concentrations. NaCl addition resulted in the highest contrast. Contrast improves with additional salt concentration while sensitivity decreases. Interestingly enough, addition of salt decreases the removal of material of NaOH alone at higher doses while increasing the rate at lower concentrations. Addition of LiCl salts improves contrast over NaOH alone. Furthermore, the sensitivity at all doses increases as the LiCl concentration increases, a salting out effect. Similar to NaCl salt behavior, the addition of KCl salts, improves contrast at the expense of sensitivity. However, unlike NaCl, even at very high doses, KCl addition increases removal rate of HSQ. We propose explanations for these results by considering the change of nucleophilic strength of the OH{sup -} as a function of cation size and concentration, the ability for salts to block the surface etching, competition between bond breakage and recombination, and the density of the HSQ as a function of dose. Furthermore, we will discuss evolution of contrast as a function of development time in the context of our models
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Scanning X-ray Microscopy Investigations into the Electron BeamExposure Mechanism of Hydrogen Silsesquioxane Resists
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The link between a negative high resolution resist contrast/developer performance and the Flory-Huggins parameter estimated from the Hansen solubility sphere
We have implemented a technique to identify candidate polymer solvents for spinning, developing, and rinsing for a high resolution, negative electron beam resist hexa-methyl acetoxy calix(6)arene to elicit the optimum pattern development performance. Using the three dimensional Hansen solubility parameters for over 40 solvents, we have constructed a Hansen solubility sphere. From this sphere, we have estimated the Flory Huggins interaction parameter for solvents with hexa-methyl acetoxy calix(6)arene and found a correlation between resist development contrast and the Flory-Huggins parameter. This provides new insights into the development behavior of resist materials which are necessary for obtaining the ultimate lithographic resolution
Selective Laser Ablation in Resists and Block Copolymers for High Resolution Lithographic Patterning
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Substrate cooling efficiency during cryogenic inductively coupled plasma polymer etching for diffractive optics on membranes
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