This Small Business Innovation Reserch (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate a new class of plasma deposited organosilicon resists. These will be highly photosensitive organosilicon hydride network materials, which may be photo-oxidatively patterned and processed without removal from a vacuum processing environment Image development is accomplished by chlorine based reactive ion etch (RIE), leaving a robust, negative tone SiO2-like etch mask that allows pattern transfer into underlying materials in a single RIE sequence. This approach will allow significant reduction in facilities and materials costs, and the proposed plasma deposited photosensitive films will be applicable to all phases of current semiconductor manufacturing and other microelectronic devices as well. Commercial applications are also expected in the flat panel display industry, multi-chip modules, and photomask manufacture.
