Resist materials for microelectronics. Part 1

Abstract

The use of diazoquinone-novolac resists is discussed. All of the semiconductor device fabrication lines have evolved toward the combination of projection printing in positive resist and plasma-based, anisotropic etching techniques. The resist materials that support this technology are all versions of the diazonaphthoquinone-sensitized novolac (DQN) resin system. The DQN resist system can resolve images well below 0.5 μ in dimension. Properly formulated DQN resists can exhibit highly nonlinear dissolution kinetics such that the dissolution rate in the surface regions of the film is substantially lower than in the bulk of the film. Factors pertinent to the image-reversal process are discussed as is contrast enhancement.