Design and performance of photoresist materials for ArF lithography

In this paper we review the design and performance of ArF resists developed from various polymer platforms. Inadequate etch performance of early ArF acrylate platforms necessitated the development of new etch resistant platforms, in terms of both etch rate and etch uniformity. Two resist platforms were developed to address etch resistance: 1) alternating copolymers of cyclic olefins and maleic anhydride (COMA); and 2) polycycloolefin polymers (CO). Improvements have been made in the imaging performance of these resists, such that they now approach the lithographic performance of acrylate based resists. Recently, a third platform based on polymerization of vinyl ethers with maleic anhydride (VEMA), which has excellent etch performance, was developed by Samsung. Here we will focus our discussion on acrylate, COMA and VEMA based resists.