Effect of low surface tension liquid on pattern collapse analyzed by dynamical meniscus observation

It is well known that Laplace force affects strongly to the resist pattern collapse phenomena during pattern development procedure (Tanaka et al., 1993). Recently, it is reported that the pattern collapse can be improved by using the low surface tension liquid (Tanaka et al., 1993). So far, we reported the air tunnel formation in the bottom meniscus during drying process (Ishikawa et al., 2004). It was clearly observed that the water meniscus enters from the both bottom edges of the parallel pattern. The purpose of this study is to clarify the drying behavior of the meniscus between the parallel thin films, when the low surface tension liquid is employed as the rinse liquid.