Aqueous base developable epoxy resist for high sensitivity electron beam lithography

Aqueous base developable, chemically amplified negative resists, based on e poxy chemistry are introduced and evaluated for high resolution, high speed e-beam lithography. These resists are formulated using partially hydrogena ted poly(hydroxy styrene) and epoxy novolac polymers and they do not suffer from thermal instability of unexposed regions during processing. Degree of hydrogenation controls the aqueous base solubility and micro phase separat ion phenomena. Reduction of edge roughness compared to the pure epoxy syste ms is observed whereas the absence of swelling phenomena allows lithography up to 100 nm regime.