The project is developing,a novel new lithographic process which is capable of generating submicrometer microlithographic images. The process is impregnating a non-radiation sensitive polymeric resist coating with a non-reactive, gaseous photoactive material, imaging said composition using a variety of exposure sources, removing the unreacted photoactive material, and leaving a latent image which is then developed (preferably using oxygen reactive ion etching). The major benefit is that this process does not require a radiation sensitive resist, nor does it use multiple coatings; and it involves little or virtually no additional processing compared to standard photoresist processing. It is capable of providing submicron image dimensions in a top layer imaging process. The tone of the process can be either positive or negative, depending on the sequence of processing steps. This process is useful for imaging with ultraviolet, deep-UV, x-ray, electron-beam, and ion-beam radiation. It is potentially useful for the formation of resist images on semiconductor and electro-optical substrates, as well as printed circuit board, inner layer, optical disc, and lithoplate preparation. The goal of the project is to define the material and reaction conditions necessary to obtain the desired photoreaction of the photoactive material and polymer film.The potential commercial application as described by the awardee: The major application is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing process with a greater insensitivity to process variations. It also allows higher contrast and smaller dimensions because of thin layer imaging.
