Claims
- 1. A process for reducing roughness from a surface of a patterned chemically amplified photoresist, the process comprising:a) exposing a substrate having patterned chemically amplified photoresist resulting from imaging and developing processing thereon to a vapor, wherein the vapor diffuses into the surface of the patterned photoresist; b) heating the substrate to a temperature and for a time sufficient to cause the surface of the patterned photoresist to flow wherein the surface roughness decreases; c) exposing the patterned photoresist to an activating radiation prior to, simultaneous with or subsequent to exposing the substrate to the vapor to form a compound, wherein the compound is reactive with the vapor; and d) reacting the vapor with the compound to form a polymer.
- 2. The process according to claim 1 wherein the compound is selected from the group consisting of a free radical, an acid, and a base.
- 3. The process according to claim 1 wherein the vapor is generated from a material selected from the group consisting of vinyl ethers, epoxides, acrylonitriles, furans, coumarins, indenes, styrenes, acrylate, aryl halides, halosilanes, alkynes, alkenes, cyclic ethers and sulfur dioxide.
- 4. The process according to claim 1 wherein the vapor reacts with the photoresist to increase a glass transition temperature for the photoresist surface relative to a glass transition temperature of bulk photoresist wherein the bulk photoresist is free from exposure to the vapor.
- 5. The process according to claim 1 wherein the vapor is 2,3-dihydrofuran.
- 6. The process according to claim 1 wherein the radiation that is used to expose the photoresist has a wavelength in the ultraviolet range.
- 7. The process according to claim 1 wherein the radiation that is used to expose the photoresist has a wavelength in the x-ray range.
- 8. The process according to claim 1 wherein the radiation consists of electrons generated from an electron beam.
- 9. The process according to claim 1 wherein the vapor is generated from a liquid with a boiling point less than about 200° C. at standard atmospheric conditions.
- 10. The process according to claim 1 wherein the vapor is a monomer selected from the group consisting of indenes, furans, vinyl ethers, epoxides, styrenes, acrylate, alkenes and alkynes.
- 11. A process for reducing roughness from a surface of a patterned photoresist, the process comprising:a) exposing a substrate having patterned photoresist resulting from imaging and developing processing thereon to a reactive vapor, wherein the vapor penetrates into the surface of the patterned photoresist; b) heating the substrate to a temperature and for a time sufficient to cause the surface of the patterned photoresist to flow wherein the surface roughness decreases; and c) polymerizing the reactive vapor within the photoresist by exposing the patterned photoresist to an activating energy whereby the vapor reacts in the patterned photoresist to form a compound.
- 12. The process according to claim 11 wherein the reactive vapor is selected from a material that reacts with a functional group on a polymer in the patterned photoresist.
- 13. The process according to claim 11 wherein the reactive vapor is selected from a material that reacts with a free radical in the patterned photoresist to form a nonvolatile compound.
- 14. The process according to claim 11 wherein the step of polymerizing the vapor comprises contacting the reactive vapor with an acid generated by the activating energy.
- 15. The process according to claim 11 wherein the step of polymerizing the vapor contacting the reactive vapor with a base generated by the activating energy.
- 16. The process according to claim 11 wherein the reactive vapor is a vinyl ether.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a Divisional of Ser. No. 09/712,443 filed on Nov. 14, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,891.
This application is a Continuation-in-part application of, and claims priority from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/452,878 entitled, “UV-Assisted Chemical Modification of Photoresist”, filed on Dec. 2, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,503,693, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
US Referenced Citations (11)
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/452878 |
Dec 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/712443 |
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US |