Chemically Amplified Resist Based on Dendritic Molecular Glass for Electron Beam Lithography

A novel dendritic molecular glass(MG) containing adamantane core(AD-15) was synthesized and characterized. It exhibits good solubility in common organic solvents and a stable amorphous state at room temperature, which contributes to forming films with different thicknesses by spin-coating. The thermal analysis of AD-15 indicates that no apparent glass transition temperature( T g ) is observed before the thermal decomposition temperature( T d =160 °C). The good thermal resistance suggests that it can satisfy the lithographic process and is a candidate for photoresist materials. The patterning properties of AD-15 resist were evaluated by electron beam lithography(EBL). By optimizing the lithographic process parameters, AD-15 resist can achieve 40 nm half-pitch patterns with a line-edge roughness of 4.0 nm. The contrast and sensitivity of AD-15 resist were 1.9 and 67 µC/cm 2 , respectively. Compared with the commercial PMMA(950k) electron beam resist, the sensitivity of AD-15 resist increases by 6 times. This study provides a new example of molecular glass resist with high resolution and sensitivity for EBL.