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Improvement of plasma etching durability of positive working resist by copolymerization, blending, and crosslinking
Author(s) -
Ueno Nobuo,
Doi Yasunori,
Sugita Kazuyuki,
Sasaki Shigeru,
Nagata Shiro
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.1987.070340426
Subject(s) - copolymer , materials science , etching (microfabrication) , methacrylamide , plasma etching , polymer , polymer chemistry , resist , methyl methacrylate , methacrylate , chemical engineering , composite material , layer (electronics) , acrylamide , engineering
The plasma etching durability of O 2 and CCl 4 was investigated for copolymer and polymer blend of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(α‐methylstyrene) (PMSt) as a function of MSt content. Further, the effects of crosslinking on plasma etching were studied by incorporating N ‐methylolated methacrylamide into the copolymer as a crosslinkable site during prebaking. The plasma‐etching resistance of PMMA was largely improved by incorporating or adding only a small amount of MSt. Especially in the case of the CCl 4 plasma etching, the copolymer and the polymer blend with 10 mol% of MSt showed etching resistance as great as that of PMSt homopolymer. Stabilization of the polymers against the plasma etching can be explained by the sponge effect, the energy migration followed by the quenching by the phenyl ring. The polymer blend offered similar etching resistance as the copolymer, indicating an effective occurrence of the energy migration between the polymer chains. Etching resistance was also improved by crosslinking, also due to the enhancement of the sponge effect.