Synthesis of new polymers for photoresist and lithographic printing applications

Lithographic resist materials based on copolymers and/or terpolymers have been synthesised. These materials are comprised of one component to induce water solubility, such as N-vinyl pyrrolidinone (NVP) or N, N-dimethyl acrylamide (DMAC); and another material to give the photoactive response, in this case allyl glycidyl ether (AGE) or glycidyl methacrylate (GMA). Copolymers and terpolymers of various compositions have been prepared by free radical copolymerization. Cationically initiated photo-crosslinking was induced using mixed arylsulphonium hexaflouroantimonate (MAS(+)-SbF6-) as a photoacid generating (PAG) species.