Status and future of DUV photoresists for the semiconductor industry

This paper reviews the development of positive DUV resists at IBM and Shipley. The review begins with APEX-E the prototypical chemically amplified positive DUV resist used throughout the semiconductor industry. The paper then follows the emergence of new resist technology to overcome the weaknesses of first generation DUV resists like APEX-E. These improvements include feature-specific resists for low k(1) processing, improved delay stability, improved PEB sensitivity, better etch resistance, and reduced substrate dependence. A new series of annealing type resists, UV5, UV6, and Titan have demonstrated all of these improvements.