Photosensitive resists for optical lithography

Optical lithography relies on photosensitive materials to transfer the aerial image into the substrate. These photoresists have been steadily improved to keep up with the innovations in the lithography tools targeting a higher fidelity in the pattern transfer. After describing the resist process and the photolithographic criteria for such materials, this article will focus on the Chemically Amplified Resists (CAR) especially for the 193 nm lithography. The added challenges of the immersion lithography will then be addressed and some perspectives will be given. To cite this article: B. Mortini, C. R. Physique 7 (2006).