New chemistry in the i)esign of chemically amplified positive resists

The quest for a high performance positive deep-flY resist is a significant challenge. In this paper we w11 discuss a new approach to chemically amplified positive resists involving the use of a new and versatile class of polymeric dissolution inhibitors. Methacrylate terpolymers originally designed as chemically amplified positive resists for printed circuit board technology have been found to form stable, one-phase mixtures with a variety of phenolic resins. These new dissolution inhibitors based on MMA-TBMA-MAA terpolyrners have unusual and useful properties, including excellent optical transmission at 248 nrn, high glass transition temperatures, and dissolution inhibition/promotion power which can be tailored to accommodate the dissolution properties of the particular phenolic resin being used.