A new strong solvent remover is able to solve resist layers tempered at room temperature. It is remarkable that the remover takes the same effect on novolak based as well as PMMA based resists and thus is suited for versatile applications. It must be pointed out, however, that the flash point of the remover is below 21 °C and therefore needs to be handled with care.
The simplest but nevertheless highly effective removers are sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) solutions. Already a 4 % KOH solution will remove basically all novolac-based photo- and e-beam resists within a few seconds.
There are two main groups of developers: solvent-based and aqueous-alkaline developers. The solvent-based ones are intended mainly for PMMA e-beam resists, for CSAR 62 and also for special polymer based products. In this process, solvents such as methylisobutylketone (MIBK), IPA (partly with water) for PMMA, amyl acetate, MIBK, DEK, DEM, xylol for CSAR 62 and ethylbenzene as well as hexane are used for the protective coating.
All resists we offer as well as a large number of process chemicals contain organic solvents. When handling these products, provisions of the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances are to be complied with. The safety data sheets of our products are intended to provide required data and handling recommendations for the user to take effective measures for health protection, workplace safety and environmental protection.
The classical remover is acetone which is, together with isopropanol, used as cleaning agent in probably every lab worldwide. The dissolving power of acetone for non- or only low-baked films (up to 120 °C) is excellent.
The use of a cascade is recommended for optimum performance of the developer and for the highest cleanliness during immersion development. The development often takes place in only one container.
In addition to the established adhesion promoter AR 300-80 (which is based on diphenylsilanediol), also other silicone-containing compounds may be used to render hydrophilic surfaces more hydrophobic.
For some applications are universal developers of advantage, i.e. developers which are simultaneously well suited for a variety of resist families. Multilayer systems can in this case be developed in one step, and no change of the developer in between is required.
X AR 600-50/2 is a new, very sensitive and highly selective developer for AR-P 617. The dark erosion is very low even at longer development times. Layers of PMMA or CSAR 62 are not attacked, which is especially important for multi-layer processes.
To evaluate the suitability of various developers for CSAR 62, Dr. Lothar Hahn (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Microstructure Technology) kindly provided various substrates which had previously been exposed to 100 kV e-beam irradiation (dose variations).