A novel non-chemically amplified resist based on polystyrene-iodonium derivatives for electron beam lithography

Abstract To break the resolution limitation of traditional resists, more work is needed on non-chemically amplified resists (non-CARs). Non-CARs based on iodonium salt modified polystyrene (PS-I) were prepared with controllable molecular weight and structure. The properties of the resist can be adjusted by the uploading of iodonium salts on the polymer chain, the materials with a higher proportion of iodonium salts show better lithography performance. By comparing contrast curves and quality of the lithographic patterns, the optimum developing condition of 4-methyl-2-pentanone and ethyl alcohol (v:v = 1:7) was selected. The high-resolution stripes of 15 nm half-pitch (HP) can be achieved by PS-I 0.58 in e-beam lithography (EBL). PS-I 0.58 shows the advanced lithography performance in the patterns of 16 nm HP and 18 nm HP stripes with low line edge roughness (3.0 nm and 2.4 nm). The resist shows excellent potential for further pattern transfer, the etch selectivity of resist PS-I 0.58 to the silicon was close to 12:1. The lithographic mechanism of PS-I was investigated by experimental and theoretical calculation, which indicates the polarity of materials changes results in the solubility switch. This work provides a new option and useful guidelines for the development of high-resolution resist.