Investigating High Opacity and Increased Activation Energy in the Multi-Trigger Resist

Abstract

by NMP; yet current resist formulations purposely add tertiary amines to prevent dark losses. Recent research has demonstrated that amides can accelerate deprotonation of radical cations [14] that form along the polymer backbone upon exposure to EUV. This feature helps to prevent recombination with other radicals and increases acid generation, thereby enhancing sensitivity [15]. Our goal in these studies was to design peptoids that incorporate chemical moieties adapted to functions such as adhesion to the underlying substrate, etch resistance, and solubility switching. As the peptoids examined are 10-mers, the structure of the side chains is also carefully chosen to avoid crystallization and tune the glass transition temperature. Protecting groups serving as solubility switches were selected with the goal of groups that possessed a high radical cation acidity, a property previously shown to correlate closely with the sensitivity of EUV resists. While these initial results show the potential of peptoids as photoresist materials, the ongoing research is still at an initial stage.