Development of novel protecting derivatives for chemically amplified extreme ultraviolet resist

EUV lithography is the most favorable process for high volume manufacturing of semiconductor devices below 1X nm half-pitch. Many efforts have revealed that the effective proton generation and the control of the generated acid diffusion are required to improve the breakthrough of the RLS trade-off. For the development of EUV resists, the novel protecting derivatives were designed. To clarify the lithographic performance of these derivatives, we synthesized the acrylic polymers containing these derivatives as model photopolymers and exposed the resist samples based on these polymers to EUV/EB radiation. On the basis of the lithographic performances of these resist sample, we evaluated the characteristics of novel protecting derivatives upon exposure to EUV/EB radiation. We discuss the relationship between the chemical structures of these derivatives and lithographic performance.