Resist composition and patterning process using the same

Abstract

A resist composition is provided comprising a silicone resin, a photoacid generator, a nitrogen-containing organic compound, and a solvent. The silicone resin is obtained through cohydrolytic condensation of a mixture of three silane monomers containing a norbornane group having hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol, an organic group having a carboxyl group protected with an acid labile group, and a lactone ring-bearing organic group, respectively. The resist composition has satisfactory resolution and overcomes the problem of a low selective etching ratio between resist film and organic film during oxygen reactive etching.

Description

Claims

1. A resist composition comprising (A) a silicone resin,(B) an acid generator,(C) an organic nitrogen-containing compound, and(D) an organic solvent,said silicone resin (A) being obtained through cohydrolytic condensation of a mixture comprising hydrolyzable silane monomers having the general formulae (1), (2) and (3):

2. The resist composition of claim 1, wherein the silane monomer of formula (1) is a silane monomer having the structure (4):

3. The resist composition of claim 1, wherein in formula (3), R5 is an organic group having an alicyclic structure and a 5-membered lactone structure bonded thereto, and the silicon atom is bonded to one of carbon atoms in the alicyclic structure.

4. The resist composition of claim 1, wherein the silane monomer of formula (3) is a silane monomer having the structure (5) or (6):

5. The resist composition of claim 1, wherein said mixture further comprises a hydrolyzable monomer having at least two hydrolyzable substituent groups other than formulae (1), (2) and (3).

6. The resist composition of claim 1, wherein said mixture further comprises a compound having the general formula (7): SiX4  (7)

7. A pattern forming process comprising the steps of: forming a pattern on an aromatic-containing resin film using the resist composition of claim 1, andetching the resin film through the resulting pattern as an etching mask for thereby patterning the resin film.

8. The pattern forming process of claim 7, wherein the etching step uses a gas plasma containing oxygen.