Novel approach for high resolution using cycloolefin-alt-maleic acid derivatives polymer for ArF lithography

Polyacrylate derivative was first developed as raw material for ArF resist and it was selected the first candidate in spite of some defects. Cycloolefin-maleic anhydride polymer[COMA] and other polymers were therefore given opportunity. The resist based on COMA shows a good dry-etch resistance compared with that based on acrylate polymer. However, the pattern profile of the resist formulated by using COMA has some defects such as taper and low resolution because of transmittance issue of the polymer. In order to solve the issue, we have developed a new polymer [It was named ROMA Resin]. The new polymer has good physical properties such as UV transmittance, stability during storage and moderate glass transition temperature. We also found that the pattern profile of the resist formulated by using the polymer shows good results in terms of pattern profile, CD SEM slimming and PED stability.