Chemically amplified positive resist for next-generation photomask fabrication

We have been developing novolak-based chemically amplified positive resists for the next generation photomask fabrication. In this paper, we report two different types of EB resists: RE-5150P and RE-5160P. Our resist materials consist of four components: a novolak matrix resin, a polyphenol compound, an acid generator and a dissolution inhibitor. We applied two different types of dissolution inhibitors to our resist materials. RE-5150P and RE-5160P employed respective a high and a low activation energy type of a dissolution inhibitor. RE-5150P has high contrast and RE- 5160P has wide process window. As a result, we confirmed RE- 5150P could achieve 0.24 micrometer line-and-space vertical resist pattern profiles at 8 (mu) C/cm2 using the 50 kV EB- writer HL-800M, and RE-5160P has wide process window: post exposure delay stability is over 24 hrs. and post coating delay stability is over 30 days.