2023 Volume 36 Issue 1 Pages 41-45
For the development of low line width roughness (LWR) resist, it is necessary to achieve uniform spatial distribution of chemical components in resist thin films at the nanometer scale. To evaluate the chemical distribution, we have developed the resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS) technique. In this study, we evaluated the chemical distribution in five resist thin films spin-coated on a silicon wafer by reflection-mode RSoXS at NewSUBARU synchrotron light facility. The samples were also measured by X-ray absorption spectroscopy. At the reflection-mode RSoXS, the scattered light from the sample surface was recorded by the soft X-ray CMOS camera. The grazing angle of incidence was set to 5 degrees for the sample. The scattering profile for each sample represents the chemical aggregation of the resist polymer. A non-chemically amplified resist had low chemical aggregation, and chemically amplified resist had higher chemical aggregation due to its hydroxyl group of base polymers.
