Novel polymeric sulfonium photoacid generator and its application for chemically amplified photoresists

Abstract

Chemically amplified resists (CARs) which involved the photoacid generator (PAG) have been widely used because of the high sensitivity. The inherent incompatibility between the polymer matrix and small molecular PAGs leads to problems including PAG phase separation, non-uniform initial PAG and photoacid distribution, as well as acid migration during the post-exposure baking (PEB) processes. The polymeric PAGs based resist systems which incorporated the PAG units into the main chain showed improved lithographic performance, such as faster photospeed and higher stability, lower outgassing, and lower LER than corresponding blend resists. In this paper, a novel type of polymeric PAGs based on poly (4-hydroxylstyrene) (PHS) was discussed. Chemically amplified photorssists were formed by the polymeric PAG and other film forming material containing acid labile groups. The polymeric PAGs showed advantage over the common small molecular PAG and patterns with 180 nm resolution was obtained in the 248-nm lithography.