mr-PosEBR: a novel positive tone resist for high resolution electron beam lithography and 3D surface patterning

In this contribution, we present the results of a systematic material variation for the development of a resist material for high resolution positive tone electron beam lithography (EBL). Several acrylic copolymer materials with different compositions, that is varying mass fractions of the comonomers and different molecular weights, were synthesized and – as resist solutions – evaluated in terms of EBL performance at acceleration voltages of 30 kV and 100 kV. The resist material exhibiting the best combination of the desired properties, named mr-PosEBR, is two times more sensitive than PMMA 495k and performs comparably to the known high resolution resist ZEP520A at 30 kV. For example, a grating pattern with 29 nm wide lines with a period of 100 nm could be lithographically generated in films of mr-PosEBR with an area dose of 100 μC/cm2. In terms of resolution, single lines of only 35 nm width could be fabricated via metal liftoff. Furthermore, the dry etch stability of mr-PosEBR in a CF4/SF6 process is similar to the one of ZEP520A. Consequently, via dry etching nano patterns in mr-PosEBR could be smoothly transferred into the underlying Si substrate with high fidelity. Moreover, mr-PosEBR was evaluated as electron beam grayscale patterning and reflow resist. It was shown that the resist exhibits a good grayscale and reflow performance very similar to PMMA 120k and ZEP520A. Via these well controllable processes the generation of a wide variety of features and applications is possible.