Abstract: A production method of a laminate including a substrate and a light-transmitting support plate that are laminated each other via an adhesive layer and a release layer that is altered through absorption of light, the method including a release layer forming step of coating a reactive polysilsesquioxane on a surface of the support plate, the surface being opposed to the substrate, and heating the reactive polysilsesquioxane to perform polymerization, thereby forming the release layer.

Abstract: A pattern-forming method, including: forming a first resist film by applying a first chemically amplified resist composition onto a support, forming a plurality of resist patterns by selectively exposing and then developing the first resist film, forming a plurality of coated patterns by forming a coating film composed of a metal oxide film on the surface of each resist pattern, forming a second resist film by applying a second chemically amplified resist composition onto the support having the coated patterns formed thereon, and selectively exposing and then developing the second resist film, thereby forming a pattern composed of the plurality of coated patterns and a resist pattern formed in the second resist film onto the support.

Abstract: A positive-working photoresist composition suitable for fine patterning in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, e.g. VLSIs, with high fidelity is proposed. The composition comprises a cresol novolac resin and a naphthoquinone diazide sulfonic acid ester as the photosensitive component while the cresol novolac resin component is characteristically a combination of two different cresol novolac resins differentiated in respects of the weight-average molecular weight, one large and the other small, and the weight proportion of the m- and p-isomers of cresol, one rich in the m-isomer and the other rich in the p-isomer, used in the preparation of the novolac and the overall weight ratio of the m-cresol and p-cresol moieties in the thus combined cresol novolac resins also should be in a specified range.