Abstract: The present invention provides a method for miniaturizing a pattern without seriously increasing the production cost or impairing the production efficiency. This invention also provides a fine resist pattern and a resist substrate-treating solution used for forming the fine pattern. The pattern formation method comprises a treatment step. In the treatment step, a resist pattern after development is treated with a resist substrate-treating solution containing an amino group-containing, preferably, a tertiary polyamine-containing water-soluble polymer, so as to reduce the effective size of the resist pattern formed by the development. The present invention also relates to a resist pattern formed by that method, and further relates to a treating solution used in the method.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 12, 2007
Date of Patent:
January 24, 2012
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Go Noya, Ryuta Shimazaki, Masakazu Kobayashi
Abstract: Base soluble polymer comprising at least one sulfonyl group where at least one carbon atom at ?-position and/or ?-position and/or ?-position with respect to the sulfonyl group has a hydroxyl group, where the hydroxyl group is protected or unprotected are described.
Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for forming an reverse tone image on a device comprising; a) forming an optional absorbing organic underlayer on a substrate; b) forming a coating of a photoresist over the underlayer; c) forming a photoresist pattern; d) forming a polysilazane coating over the photoresist pattern from a polysilazane coating composition, where the polysilazane coating is thicker than the photoresist pattern, and further where the polysilazane coating composition comprises a silicon/nitrogen polymer and an organic coating solvent; e) etching the polysilazane coating to remove the polysilazane coating at least up to a level of the top of the photoresist such that the photoresist pattern is revealed; and, f) dry etching to remove the photoresist and the underlayer which is beneath the photoresist, thereby forming an opening beneath where the photoresist pattern was present.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 10, 2009
Date of Patent:
December 27, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
David Abdallah, Ralph R. Dammel, Yusuke Takano, Jin Li, Kazunori Kurosawa
Abstract: The present invention provides a composition for forming a top anti-reflection coating having such a low refractive index that it can be suitably used in pattern formation with an ArF excimer laser beam, and further the invention also provides a pattern formation method employing that composition. The top anti-reflection coating composition comprises a particular naphthalene compound, a polymer, and a solvent. The composition is used for forming a top anti-reflection coating provided on a photoresist layer. From the photoresist layer, a pattern can be formed by use of light in 160 to 260 nm.
Abstract: The present invention relates to a positive bottom photoimageable antireflective coating composition which is capable of being developed in an aqueous alkaline developer, wherein the antireflective coating composition comprises a polymer comprising at least one recurring unit with a chromophore group and one recurring unit with a hydroxyl and/or a carboxyl group, a vinyl ether terminated crosslinking agent, and optionally, a photoacid generator and/or an acid and/or a thermal acid generator. The invention further relates to a process for using such a composition.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 24, 2007
Date of Patent:
October 18, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Yu Sui, Hengpeng Wu, Wenbing Kang, Mark O. Neisser, Tomohide Katayama, Shuji S. Ding-Lee, Aritaka Hishida, Joseph E. Oberlander, Medhat E. Toukhy
Abstract: The present invention relates to an antireflective composition comprising a polymer, a thermal acid generator and optionally a crosslinking agent, where the polymer comprises at least one hydrophobic unit (1), at least one chromophore unit (2), at least one unit with a crosslinking site (3) and optionally a unit capable of crosslinking the polymer, where, R1 to R8 are independently selected from hydrogen and C1-C4 alkyl, W1 is a fully or partially fluorinated alkylene group, X is selected from F, H and OH; W2 comprises a chromophore group, and W3 Y comprises a crosslinking site. The invention also relates to a process for using the antireflective coating composition.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 21, 2007
Date of Patent:
October 18, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Huirong Yao, Zhong Xiang, Jian Yin, Weihong Liu
Abstract: The present invention relates to a composition comprising: (a) a polymer having at least one repeating unit of formula where R1 is a non-hydrolysable group and n is an integer ranging from 1 to 3; and (b) a crosslinking catalyst. The composition is useful in forming low k dielectric constant materials and as well as hard mask and underlayer materials with anti-reflective properties for the photolithography industry.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 20, 2007
Date of Patent:
September 27, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Hengpeng Wu, WooKyu Kim, Hong Zhuang, PingHung Lu, Mark Neisser, David Abdallah, Ruzhi Zhang
Abstract: The present invention relates to an organic spin coatable antireflective coating composition comprising a polymer comprising at least one unit with 3 or more fused aromatic rings in the backbone of the polymer and at least one unit with an aliphatic moeity in the backbone of the polymer. The invention further relates to a process for imaging the present composition.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 16, 2007
Date of Patent:
September 13, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Francis Houlihan, David Abdallah, M. Dalil Rahman, Douglas McKenzie, Ruzhi Zhang, Allen G. Timko, WooKyu Kim, Ping-Hung Lu
Abstract: A compound of the formula (I) where the symbols and indices are each defined as follows: A is A?, R or O—R; where R is a straight-chain, branched or cyclic, saturated or unsaturated aliphatic radical having 1-8 carbon atoms; A? is the same or different and is B is a bond, —O—C(O)—, —C(O)—O—, —O—C(O)—, —C(O)—NH—, —NH—C(O)—, —C(O)—O—CH2—CH(OH)—CH2—O, —O—CH2—CH(OH)—CH2—O—(O)C—, —O—C(O)—O—, —O—C(O)—NH— or —NH—C(O)—O—; R1 is H or OH; m is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5; Y is n is a positive rational number ?3; E is the same or different and is —CH—CHR2—, —CHR2—CH2—, —CH2—CHR2—O—, —O—CHR2—CH2—, —(CH2)r—O— or —O—(CH2)—; R2 is H or CH3 and r is 1 or 4, is suitable as a light-sensitive component for photoresists.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
November 6, 2006
Date of Patent:
September 6, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Wolfgang Zahn, Ralf Grottenmüller, Dieter Wagner
Abstract: The present invention provides a resist substrate treating solution and a method for pattern formation using that treating solution, and thereby problems such as foreign substances on the substrate surface, pattern collapse and pattern roughness can be easily solved at the same time. The treating solution comprises water and an alkylene oxide adduct of a primary amine having a hydrocarbon group of 11 to 30 carbon atoms or of ammonia. The method for pattern formation according to the invention comprises a step of treating the developed pattern with that treating solution.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
February 13, 2007
Date of Patent:
August 16, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Go Noya, Masakazu Kobayashi, Ryuta Shimazaki
Abstract: The present invention relates to an antireflective composition comprising a thermal acid generator and an epoxy polymer comprising at least one unit of structure 1, at least one unit of structure 2, where, R1 to R12 are independently selected from hydrogen and C1-C4 alkyl, structure 1 has a configuration selected from cis, trans or mixture thereof, and x and y are the mole % of the monomeric units in the polymer. The invention also relates to a process for manufacturing a microelectronic device.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 1, 2008
Date of Patent:
August 2, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp
Inventors:
M. Dalil Rahman, David Abdallah, Rhuzi Zhang, Douglas McKenzie
Abstract: The invention relates to an antireflective coating composition comprising a polymer, a crosslinker and a thermal acid generator, where the polymer comprises at least one unit of structure (1), at least one unit of structure (2) and at least one structure of structure (3), where R1 to R9 is independently selected from H and C1-C6 alkyl, R? and R? is independently selected from H and C1-C6 alkyl, X is C1-C6 alkylene, Y is C1-C6 alkylene. The invention further relates to a process for imaging a photoresist coated over the antireflective coating composition.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
May 6, 2008
Date of Patent:
April 26, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Douglas McKenzie, David Abdallah, Allen G. Timko, M. Dalil Rahman
Abstract: The present invention relates to an aqueous coating composition for coating a photoresist pattern comprising a polymer containing a lactam group of structure (1) where R1 is independently selected hydrogen, C1-C4 alkyl, C1-C6 alkyl alcohol, hydroxy (OH), amine (NH2), carboxylic acid, and amide (CONH2), ?represents the attachment to the polymer, m=1-6, and n=1-4. The present invention also relates to a process for manufacturing a microelectronic device comprising providing a substrate with a photoresist pattern, coating the photoresist pattern with the novel coating material reacting a portion of the coating material in contact with the photoresist pattern, and removing a portion of the coating material which is not reacted with a removal solution.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
April 9, 2007
Date of Patent:
April 12, 2011
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Muthiah Thiyagarajan, Ralph R. Dammel, Yi Cao, SungEun Hong, WenBing Kang, Clement Anyadiegwu
Abstract: This invention provides a photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus and a photoresist coating liquid supplying method, for supplying a photoresist coating liquid having a low particle content to a photoresist coating apparatus, and a photoresist coating apparatus using such a photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus, which can realize coating without causing significant defects in a cost-effective manner. The photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus comprises a buffer vessel for a photoresist coating liquid, a circulation filtering apparatus for drawing a part of the coating liquid from the buffer vessel, filtering the coating liquid, and then returning the filtered coating liquid to the buffer vessel, and a pipe for supplying the coating liquid from the buffer vessel or the circulation apparatus to a coating apparatus. The photoresist coating liquid supplying method uses the photoresist coating liquid supplying apparatus.
Abstract: The invention relates to an antireflective coating composition capable of being coated beneath a photoresist layer, where the antireflective coating composition comprises a polymeric crosslinker and a solvent mixture, where the solvent mixture comprises at least one primary organic solvent and at least one secondary organic solvent selected from any of structures 1, 2 and 3, where, R1, R3, and R4, are selected from H and C1-C6 alkyl, and R2, R5, R6, R7, R8, and R9 are selected from C1-C6 alkyl, and n=1-5. The invention also relates to an antireflective coating composition capable of being coated beneath a photoresist layer, where the antireflective coating composition comprises a polymeric crosslinker and a solvent mixture, where the solvent mixture comprises at least 2 organic solvents, and where the antireflective coating composition has a liquid particle count at 0.2 micron of less than 100/ml after accelerated aging.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 19, 2007
Date of Patent:
November 2, 2010
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Zhong Xiang, Hengpeng Wu, Hong Zhuang, Eleazar Gonzalez, Mark O. Neisser
Abstract: The present invention relates to a positive bottom photoimageable antireflective coating composition which is capable of being developed in an aqueous alkaline developer, wherein the antireflective coating composition comprises a polymer comprising at least one recurring unit with a chromophore group and one recurring unit with a hydroxyl and/or a carboxyl group, a vinyl ether terminated crosslinking agent, and optionally, a photoacid generator and/or an acid and/or a thermal acid generator. The invention further relates to a process for using such a composition.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
October 22, 2007
Date of Patent:
November 2, 2010
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
Hengpeng Wu, Mark O. Neisser, Shuji S Ding-Lee, Aritaka Hishida, Joseph E. Oberlander, Medhat E. Toukhy
Abstract: A process for imaging a photoresist comprising the steps of, a) forming a stack of multiple layers of organic antireflective coatings on a substrate; b) forming a coating of a photoresist over the upper layer of the stack of multiple layers of organic antireflective coatings; c) imagewise exposing the photoresist with an exposure equipment; and, d) developing the coating with a developer.
Type:
Grant
Filed:
January 24, 2006
Date of Patent:
October 19, 2010
Assignee:
AZ Electronic Materials USA Corp.
Inventors:
David J. Abdallah, Mark O. Neisser, Ralph R. Dammel, Georg Pawlowski, John Biafore, Andrew R. Romano