The design of resist materials for 157nm lithography

The synthesis and characterization of several new fluoropolymers designed for use in the formulation of photoresists for exposure at 157 nm will be described. The design of these resist platforms is based on learning from previously reported fluorine-containing materials'. We have continued to explore anionic polymerizations, free radical polymerizations, metal-catalyzed addition polymerizations and metal-catalyzed copolymerizations with carbon monoxide in these studies. A new, three component design for 157 nm resists will also be presented. The monomers were characterized by vacuum-UV (VUV) spectrometry and polymers characterized by variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE). Resist formulations based on these polymers were exposed at the 157 nm wavelength to produce high-resolution images. The synthesis and structures of these new materials and the details of their processing will be presented.