A method for forming a semiconductor structure is provided. The method includes depositing a hard mask layer over a substrate. The method further includes depositing a silver precursor layer over the hard mask layer. The method further includes exposing portions of the silver precursor layer to a radiation, the radiation causing a reduction of silver ions in the irradiated portions of the silver precursor layer. The method further includes removing non-irradiated portions of the silver precursor layer, resulting in a plurality of silver seed structures.

A method for forming a semiconductor structure is provided. The method includes depositing a hard mask layer over a substrate. The method further includes depositing a silver precursor layer over the hard mask layer. The method further includes exposing portions of the silver precursor layer to a radiation, the radiation causing a reduction of silver ions in the irradiated portions of the silver precursor layer. The method further includes removing non-irradiated portions of the silver precursor layer, resulting in a plurality of silver seed structures.

A resist composition comprising a base polymer possessing a sulfonium or iodonium salt structure having an iodized arylsulfonic acid anion attached to its backbone is provided. It exhibits a high sensitivity and forms a pattern with reduced LWR or improved CDU independent of whether it is of positive or negative type.

The present invention provides a method for producing an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition, including (X) mixing a specific onium salt compound (1) with a specific salt compound (2) in a non-aqueous solvent (S) to obtain a specific onium salt compound (3), (Y) obtaining a specific onium salt compound (A) from the onium salt compound (3), and (Z) mixing the onium salt compound (A) with a resin (B) whose solubility in a developer changes due to action of acid; a method for producing an onium salt compound (A) for an actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition, including (X) and (Y); a pattern forming method; and a method for manufacturing an electronic device.

A measuring method for measuring an overlay shift between two wafers, comprising: providing a previous wafer layer, a to-be-measured wafer layer and a measuring circuit layer, wherein each of the previous wafer layer and the to-be-measured wafer layer comprises a first group of dies; measuring, by a plurality of probes of the measuring circuit layer, the first group of dies of the to-be-measured wafer layer; generating a measurement result according to at least the measuring to the first group of dies; and comparing the measurement result with a standard data to determine the overlay shift between the previous wafer layer and the to-be-measured wafer layer, wherein the to-be-measured wafer layer is between the previous wafer layer and the measuring circuit layer and is connected to the previous wafer layer and the measuring circuit layer.

The present invention is a resist material containing a quencher, where the quencher contains a sulfonium salt of a carboxylic acid bonded to a maleimide group. In a chemically amplified resist material in which an acid is used as a catalyst, it is desired to develop a quencher that makes it possible to reduce LWR of line patterns and critical dimension uniformity (CDU) of hole patterns, and to improve sensitivity. For this purpose, it is necessary to reduce image blurs due to acid diffusion considerably. An object of the present invention is to provide: a resist material having high sensitivity, low LWR, and low CDU in both a positive resist material and a negative resist material; and a patterning process using the same.