Hyperbranched Polymers for Photolithographic Applications – Towards Understanding the Relationship between Chemical Structure of Polymer Resin and Lithographic Performances

Abstract

A chemically amplified resist based on a hyperbranched polymer resin is demonstrated for the first time. The hyperbranched polymer is synthesized using the atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) technique, and resists prepared from this hyperbranched polymer present good pattern profiles and line-edge roughness (3σ) values comparable to those of the reference (commercial) resist.