Cycloolefin effect in cycloolefin-(meth)acryl copolymer

Abstract

One of the most important factors in ArF resist development is a resin platform, which dominates a lot of parts of resist characteristics. It has been much changed in order to improve their physical properties such as resolution, pattern profile, etch resistance and line edge roughness. Through the low etch resistance in ArF initial (meth)acryl type copolymer and low transmittance in COMA type copolymer most researchers were interested in developing of (meth)acryl type copolymer again for ArF photoresist. On the other hand, we have studied various polymer platforms suitable ArF photoresist except for meth(acryl) type copolymer. As a result of this study we had developed ROMA type polymers and cycloolefin-(meth)acryl type copolymers. Among the polymers cycloolefin-(meth)acryl type copolymer has many attractions such as etch roughness, resist reflow which needs low glass transition temperature and solvent solubility. In this study, we intend to find out cycloolefin-(meth)acryl copolymer characteristics compared with (meth)acryl copolymer. And, we have tried to find out any differences between acrylate type copolymer and cycloolefin-(meth)acrylate type copolymer with various evaluation results. As a result of this study we are going to talk about the reason that the resist using acrylate type copolymer and cycloolefin-(meth)acryl type copolymer show good pattern profile while acrylate type copolymer show poor pattern profile. We also intend to explain the role of cycloolefin as a function of molecular weight variation and substitution ratio variation of cycloolefin in cycloolefin-(meth)acrylate resin.One of the most important factors in ArF resist development is a resin platform, which dominates a lot of parts of resist characteristics. It has been much changed in order to improve their physical properties such as resolution, pattern profile, etch resistance and line edge roughness. Through the low etch resistance in ArF initial (meth)acryl type copolymer and low transmittance in COMA type copolymer most researchers were interested in developing of (meth)acryl type copolymer again for ArF photoresist. On the other hand, we have studied various polymer platforms suitable ArF photoresist except for meth(acryl) type copolymer. As a result of this study we had developed ROMA type polymers and cycloolefin-(meth)acryl type copolymers. Among the polymers cycloolefin-(meth)acryl type copolymer has many attractions such as etch roughness, resist reflow which needs low glass transition temperature and solvent solubility. In this study, we intend to find out cycloolefin-(meth)acryl copolymer characteristics compared with (meth)acryl copolymer. And, we have tried to find out any differences between acrylate type copolymer and cycloolefin-(meth)acrylate type copolymer with various evaluation results. As a result of this study we are going to talk about the reason that the resist using acrylate type copolymer and cycloolefin-(meth)acryl type copolymer show good pattern profile while acrylate type copolymer show poor pattern profile. We also intend to explain the role of cycloolefin as a function of molecular weight variation and substitution ratio variation of cycloolefin in cycloolefin-(meth)acrylate resin.