A substrate treating method for treating substrates with a substrate treating apparatus having an indexer section, a treating section and an interface section includes performing resist film forming treatment in parallel on a plurality of stories provided in the treating section and performing developing treatment in parallel on a plurality of stories provided in the treating section.

A technique for suppressing a metal component from remaining at a bottom of a mask pattern when the mask pattern is formed using a metal-containing resist film. A developable anti reflection film 103 is previously formed below a resist film 104. Further, after exposing and developing the wafer W, TMAH is supplied to the wafer W to remove a surface of the antireflection film 103 facing a bottom of the recess pattern 110 of the resist film 104. Therefore, the metal component 105 can be suppressed from remaining at the bottom of the recess pattern 110. Therefore, when the SiO.sub.2 film 102 is subsequently etched using the pattern of the resist film 104, the etching is not hindered, so that defects such as bridges can be suppressed.

Patterning of organometallic radiation sensitive compositions is facilitated using a gaseous form of a contrast enhancing agent, which can include a carboxylic acid, an amide, a sulfonic acid, an alcohol, a diol, a silyl halide, a germanium halide, a tin halide, an amine, a thiol, or a mixture thereof, in which the mixture can be of the same class or different class of compounds. Contact with the contrast enhancing reactive compound is provided after irradiation of the organometallic composition to form a latent image. The contrast enhancing agent can be delivered before or after physical pattern development, and processing with the contrast enhancing agent can involve removal in a thermal process of some or substantially all of the non-irradiated organometallic composition. The contrast enhancing agent can be used in a dry thermal development step. If the contrast enhancing agent is used after a distinct development step, use of the contrast enhancing agent can involve improvement of the pattern quality. Apparatuses for performing processing with contrast enhancing agents are described.

Various embodiments described herein relate to methods, apparatus, and systems for treating metal-containing photoresist to modify material properties of the photoresist. For instance, the techniques herein may involve providing a substrate in a process chamber, where the substrate includes a photoresist layer over a substrate layer, and where the photoresist includes metal, and treating the photoresist to modify material properties of the photoresist such that etch selectivity in a subsequent post-exposure dry development process is increased. In various embodiments, the treatment may involve exposing the substrate to elevated temperatures and/or to a remote plasma. One or more process conditions such as temperature, pressure, ambient gas chemistry, gas flow/ratio, and moisture may be controlled during treatment to tune the material properties as desired.

The present disclosure provides a method for lithography patterning in accordance with some embodiments. The method includes forming a photoresist layer over a substrate; performing an infiltration process to introduce a metallic compound into the photoresist to enhance a sensitivity of the photoresist layer to an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation; performing an exposing process to the photoresist layer using the EUV radiation; and performing a developing process to the photoresist layer to form a patterned resist layer.

The present disclosure provides a method for lithography patterning in accordance with some embodiments. The method includes forming a photoresist layer over a substrate; performing an infiltration process to introduce a metallic compound into the photoresist to enhance a sensitivity of the photoresist layer to an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation; performing an exposing process to the photoresist layer using the EUV radiation; and performing a developing process to the photoresist layer to form a patterned resist layer.

Provided is a novel composition for forming a resist underlayer film. This composition for forming a resist underlayer film includes a polymer (X) and a solvent, the polymer (X) containing: a plurality of structural units which are the same as or different from each other and have a methoxymethyl group and a ROCH2- group (R is a monovalent organic group, a hydrogen atom, or a mixture thereof) other than the methoxymethyl group; and a linking group that links the more than one structural unit.

A method of forming a mask includes forming a base film containing a treatment agent on an object, forming a photosensitive organic film on the base film, forming an infiltrated portion by infiltrating the treatment agent into a lower portion of the photosensitive organic film, selectively exposing the photosensitive organic film to form a first region soluble in an alkaline solution and a second region insoluble in the alkaline solution, forming a third region insoluble in the alkaline solution in the infiltrated portion in the first region by causing a reaction between the first region and the treatment agent, developing the photosensitive organic film to remove a fourth region that is in the first region and other than the third region while leaving intact the second region and the third region, and etching the photosensitive organic film to remove one of the second region and the third region.

A method of forming a mask includes forming a base film containing a treatment agent on an object, forming a photosensitive organic film on the base film, forming an infiltrated portion by infiltrating the treatment agent into a lower portion of the photosensitive organic film, selectively exposing the photosensitive organic film to form a first region soluble in an alkaline solution and a second region insoluble in the alkaline solution, forming a third region insoluble in the alkaline solution in the infiltrated portion in the first region by causing a reaction between the first region and the treatment agent, developing the photosensitive organic film to remove a fourth region that is in the first region and other than the third region while leaving intact the second region and the third region, and etching the photosensitive organic film to remove one of the second region and the third region.

According to the present invention, a resin composition can be provided, comprising at least three components (a), (b) and (c), wherein component (a) is a polymer having a structure represented by the following formula (1), component (b) comprises thermal crosslinking agent (b1) and thermal crosslinking agent (b2), and component (c) is a photosensitizer, wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are independently selected from groups containing at least one atom other than hydrogen; and R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 are independently selected from a hydrogen atom or an organic group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, and n is an integer selected from 1 to 10. The use of the resin composition of the present invention can result in a better flatness and bending recovery performance.