Novel Analysis of Deblocking Reaction in DUV Resists

Abstract

Deblocking reaction mechanisms of two kinds of chemically amplified resist systems were studied using the in-situ FT-IR measurement system. From the measured results, photoacid generation reaction constants, deblocking reaction orders for the acid concentration and deblocking reaction rate constants were estimated. In the case of 1-ethoxyethyl group, the deblocking reaction order for the acid concentration was very small (10^-4). The activation energies of the deblocking reactions in an acetal type resist and a t-Boc type resist were calculated from the Arrhenius plots of deblocking reaction constants and these values were agreeable with the results of molecular orbital calculations.