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US 6,296,989 B1Granted
Silylation of epoxy-containing photoresist films
AssigneeNational Center for Scientific Research "Demokritos"
InventorsEvangelos Gogolides, Evangelia Tegou, Panagiotis Argitis, Michael Hatzakis
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A high resolution pattern transfer processes is described, whereby epoxy containing photoresist films are imagewise exposed to radiation, baked to crosslink the exposed areas, and treated with a silylating medium, which reacts with the epoxy ring thereby incorporating silicon at will in the non-crosslinked regions of the film, while making those regions resistant to oxygen atom-containing plasmas.
Claims28
A process for transferring a positive tone pattern onto a substrate, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming an epoxy polymer film on the substrate, thereby forming a coated substrate;
- (b) exposing the coated substrate to a radiation source imagewise, thereby producing one or more exposed regions of said epoxy polymer film and one or more unexposed regions of said epoxy polymer film;
- (c) contacting the coated substrate with a silylating agent selected from the group consisting of halosilanes with no carbon atoms, halosilanes with alkyl groups having less than three carbon atoms, halopolysilanes, haloalkylsiloxysilanes, haloalkylsiloxypolysilanes, chlorosilane, methylchlorosilane, dimethylchlorosilane and dimethyldichlorosilane, under conditions sufficient for silylation of the unexposed area or areas of the epoxy polymer film and essentially no silylation of the exposed region or regions, thereby producing one or more silylated regions of the epoxy polymer film and one or more unsilylated regions of the epoxy polymer film;
- (d) developing the coated substrate to remove the unsilylated region or regions of said film from the substrate;
- whereby the positive tone pattern is transferred onto the substrate.
2 more elements
A process for transferring a positive tone pattern onto a substrate, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming an epoxy polymer film on the substrate, thereby forming a coated substrate;
- (b) exposing the coated substrate to radiation imagewise, wherein said radiation is selected from the group consisting of ultraviolet radiation below 200 nm, electron beams of energy below about 10 KeV and ion beams, thereby producing one or more exposed regions of said epoxy polymer film and one or more unexposed regions of said epoxy polymer film;
- (c) baking the coated substrate, thereby crosslinking the exposed region or regions of the epoxy polymer film;
- (d) contacting the coated substrate with a silylating agent selected from the group consisting of halosilanes with no carbon atoms, halosilancs with alkyl groups having less than three carbon atoms, halopolysilanes, haloalkylsiloxysilanes, haloalkylsiloxypolysilanes, chlorosilane, methylchlorosilane, dimethylchlorosilane and dimethyldichlorosilane, under conditions sufficient for silylation of the unexposed area or areas of the epoxy polymer film and essentially no silylation of the exposed region or regions, thereby producing one or more silylated regions of the epoxy polymer film and one or more unsilylated regions of the epoxy polymer film;
- and
- (e) contacting the coated substrate with a plasma comprising oxygen atoms, thereby removing the unsilylated region or regions of said film from the substrate;
- whereby the positive tone pattern is transferred onto the substrate.
4 more elements
A process for transferring a positive tone pattern onto a substrate, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming an epoxy polymer film on the substrate, thereby forming a coated substrate;
- (b) exposing the coated substrate to a radiation source imagewise, thereby producing one or more exposed regions of said epoxy polymer film and one or more unexposed regions of said epoxy polymer film;
- (c) contacting the coated substrate with a compound comprising a metal selected from the group consisting of tungsten, titanium, antimony, aluminum, copper and molybdenum, under conditions sufficient for metallation of the unexposed area or areas of the epoxy polymer film and essentially no metallation of the exposed region or regions, thereby producing one or more metalated regions of the epoxy polymer film and one or more unmetallated regions of the epoxy polymer film;
- (d) developing the coated substrate to remove the unmetalated region or regions of said film from the substrate;
- whereby the positive tone pattern is transferred onto the substrate.
2 more elements
A process for silylating an epoxy polymer film on a substrate, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a substrate coated with an epoxy polymer film;
- and
- (b) contacting the coated substrate with a silylating agent selected from the group consisting of halosilanes with no carbon atoms, halosilanes with alkyl groups having less than three carbon atoms, halopolysilanes, haloalkylsiloxysilanes, haloalkylsiloxypolysilanes, chlorosilane, methylchlorosilane, dimethylchlorosilane and dimethyldichlorosilane, under conditions sufficient for silylation of the epoxy polymer film.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.