Herein, we describe preliminary results on organic-inorganic hybrid photoresists, capable of showing line patterns up to 16 nm under e-beam exposure studies, prepared by incorporating polyoxometalates (POMs) clusters into organic photoresist materials. Various Mo and W based clusters such as (TBA)₂[Mo₆O₁₉], (TBA)₅(H)[P₂V₃W₁₅O₆₂] and (TBA)₄[P₂Mo₁₈O₆₁] (where TBA = tetrabutyl ammonium counter ion) have been incorporated into PMMA matrix by mixing POM solutions and standard PMMA polymer in anisole (MW ~ 95000, MicroChem) in 1:33 w/v ratio. E-beam exposure followed by development with MIBK solutions showed that these new organic-inorganic hybrid photoresists show good line patterns upto 16 nm, which were not observed in the case of control experiments done on pure PMMA polymer resist. The observed enhancement of resist properties in the case of hybrid resists could possibly be due to a combination of features imparted to the resist by the POM clusters such as increased sensitivity, etch resistance and thermal stability.

Date Published: 27 March 2014
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 9051, Advances in Patterning Materials and Processes XXXI, 90511W (27 March 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2041907

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9051:
Advances in Patterning Materials and Processes XXXI
Thomas I. Wallow; Christoph K. Hohle, Editor(s)