Next generation photo-resists for EUV lithography

不可抗拒材料(IM)正在为半导体工业开发下一代光致抗蚀剂材料。光致抗蚀剂被用于微芯片的制造工艺中。它充当了一种掩模，可以通过光刻工艺将图案蚀刻到硅上。正是这些被蚀刻到硅中的特征充当了现代微芯片的“导线”。因此，电阻对半导体工业至关重要，只有通过光刻和抗蚀剂技术的不断进步，微电子的尺寸才可能不断缩小。然而，目前使用的辐射是193 nm波长的光的光刻技术正在达到其极限，并且无法满足2020年后的行业目标(波长对于目标微芯片特征尺寸来说太大)。为了解决这个问题，新一代光刻技术正在被引入，称为极端紫外线光刻(EUV)。在极紫外光刻中，辐射波长被减少到13.5 nm，从而实现了更高的分辨率图案，从而实现了更小的微芯片特征。然而，目前还没有满足2021年后极紫外光刻行业目标的抗蚀剂解决方案(目前的解决方案仅针对2020年的入门节点)。通过这个项目，IM将完成我们的专利EUV抗蚀剂材料的实验开发，以直接满足这种需求和机会，并为生产规模、全面的商业中试和项目完成后随后的商业投放做好准备。

Irresistible Materials (IM) is developing next generation photo-resist materials for the semiconductor industry.A photo-resist is used within the manufacturing process of microchips. It acts as a type of mask that enables patterns to be etched into silicon through a process known as lithography. It is these features etched into silicon that act as the 'wires' of the modern day microchip.Resists are thus critical to the semiconductor industry, and the ever-decreasing size of microelectronics is possible only through continuous advancements in lithography and resist technologies. However, current lithography technology, where the radiation used is 193nm wavelength light, is reaching its limit, and is unable to meet industry targets past 2020 (the wavelength is too large for the targeted microchip feature sizes).To address this, a new generation of lithography technology is being introduced in 2020, called Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV). In EUV lithography, the wavelength of the radiation is reduced to 13.5nm enabling higher resolution patterns, and thus smaller micro-chip features.However, there is presently no resist solution that meets industry targets for EUV lithography past 2021 (current solutions only address the 2020 entry node). This creates a major need and opportunity within the semiconductor industry.Through this project, IM will complete the Experimental Development of our patented EUV resist material to directly addresses this need and opportunity, and prepare the material for production scale up, and full context commercial pilot trials and subsequent commercial launch following project completion.