Development of molecular resist derivatives for EUV lithography

As part of the continued effort of Dow's Electronic Materials business unit to generate novel resists for advanced semiconductor technologies, there has been a recent emphasis on the development of several new photoresists and ancillary platforms to enable EUV lithography. An important aspect for the success of EUV lithography is the development of photoresist materials that can meet the stringent requirements for Resolution, Line width roughness (LWR) and Sensitivity (RLS). While, a great portion of industrial research is focused on the development of polymeric resists like Polymer Bound PAGs (PBPs), small monodisperse organic molecules called molecular glasses (MGs) have gained increased attention over the past several years. If properly designed, MGs could possess physical properties that are very similar to polymeric resists while offering superior performance, specifically towards improving LWR. We have developed several MG resists based on calixarene cores that exhibit promising lithographic performance. We have continued to study the structure-property relationship of these materials with special emphasis on molecular architectures and design strategies for improved photoresist performance. In this paper, we summarize the promising lithographic performance of these MG resists that are considered as alternative choices to polymeric resists for enabling next generation lithography.