Conducting polymers as lithographic materials

Conducting polyaniline is found to be suitable for several lithographic applications. With the use of onium salts, polyaniline is made radiation sensitive and shown to be a high resolution conducting photo and electron‐beam resist. Conducting lines of 0.25 μm have been patterned with e‐beam irradiation. Thin films of conducting polyaniline are found to be effective discharge layers for e‐beam lithography. Insulating resist systems charge during e‐beam exposure, which results in pattern displacements. When polyaniline is used as a conducting layer below the imaging resist, no pattern displacements are observed. Polyaniline is also shown to eliminate charging during the high resolution inspection and dimensional measurements of X‐ray and optical masks by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) when used as a coating on top of the mask. In addition, polyaniline can be used for electrolytic and electroless type metallization processes. Copyright © 1992 Society of Plastics Engineers