US-Turkey Cooperative Research: Processing for Sub-Micron Imaging in Supercritical CO2: An Integrated Approach to the Deposition and Development of Photoresists

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

0138283 DeSimone Description: This project supports a cooperative research between Dr. Joseph DeSimone, Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Dr. Yusuf Menceloglu, Department of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabanci University (SU), Istanbul, Turkey. They plan to research means to improve the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. A bottleneck in advancing semiconductor devices to sub-micron features is the development of novel resist materials that show nearly unprecedented sensitivity at the desired exposures and undergo a fundamental shift away from the phenolic resins that have been used as the basis for virtually all optical resist development, while improving the environmental conditions associated with the process. The PI and his colleagues will synthesize an array of fluorinated polymers that will enable photoresist fabrication using a supercritical CO2 process. The two groups plan to develop new photoresists for 157 nm lithography. The new resists will be transparent, and will be soluble at liquid and/or supercritical CO2. Their properties will be evaluated by theoretical calculations, and then their synthesis will be conducted at SU laboratories. The research may lead to significant change in future microelectronic processes and could have a major impact on rendering photoresist production an environmentally friendly process. Scope: The two groups at UNC and SU have complementary capabilities and technical resources. A combination of activities will be used to facilitate communication between the two groups over the proposed three-year collaboration including one-month per year visits to SU laboratories, electronic mail, and teleconferencing. The two groups have collaborated in the past to develop eight US patents on heterogeneous polymerizations in CO2 and to produce several publications in important journals on polymerizations and on characterizations of polymer materials. A graduate student at UNC will participate in the project providing him with an international experience. Funding is provided by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Chemical and Transport Systems.