On The Dissolution Kinetics Of Positive Photoresists: The Secondary Structure Model

Dissolution kinetics of several model resins with well defined molecular structures were studied extensively. These include a pure m-cresol formaldehyde novolac resin and an alternating m,R-cresol novolac. Other phenolic materials, such as poly(4-hydroxy-styrene), were also examined. Secondary structures of these materials were predicted by molecular mechanics energy minimization techniques and corroborated by comparison with existing experimentally determined X-ray crystallographic data, where available. The excellent agreement between theory and experiment for simple systems lends credence to structural predictions for our model systems. The salient conformational features of these molecules are manifested in the variety of inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding interactions which influence strongly the dissolution properties of a given resin. Dissolution kinetics were studied as a function of cation type, developer ionic strength, normality and temperature. The results are explained in terms of the inter- and intramolecular interactions predicted for these resins. Finally we show results which indicate the utility of our model to the design of resist/developer systems.