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Product Briefing Outline: Dow Corning Electronics' Silicon Lithography Solutions group has now made available its XR-1541 E-Beam Resists, designed to enable the development of next-generation, direct-write lithography processing technology. This family of new advanced spin-on resists, which allow patterning with electron beams, is claimed to enable 6nm features.

Problem: Current lithography technology is becoming technically and economically difficult to extend beyond the 32nm node. New e-beam resists provide research groups with an economical way to directly write patterns with some of the highest resolutions possible, which will enable next-generation lithography process development for fabricating integrated circuits, masks or nanoimprint molds.

Solution: Available in a variety of high-purity, semiconductor-grade formulations,
XR-1541 E-Beam Resists consist of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resin in a carrier solvent of methylisobutylketone (MIBK). These negative-tone resists can be used with standard spin-on deposition coating equipment to produce thin films ranging in thickness from 30nm to 180nm in a single coat. Custom formulations are available for thinner or thicker films. The resists are claimed to offer excellent etch resistance and line-edge definition down to 3.3nm, and can be processed in a standard aqueous base developer.

Applications: E-beam lithography.

Platform: XR-1541 E-Beam Resists consist of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) resin in a
carrier solvent of methylisobutylketone (MIBK).

Availability: June 2008 onwards.