A carboxylate represented by formula (I), a quencher and a resist composition including the same:

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wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 each represent a halogen atom, an alkyl fluoride group or a hydrocarbon group which may have a substituent, —CH.sub.2— included in the hydrocarbon group may be replaced by —O—, —CO—, —S— or —SO.sub.2—, m1 represents an integer of 0 to 5, m2 represents an integer of 0 to 4, m3 represents an integer of 0 to 3, and X.sup.1 represents a single bond, —CH.sub.2—, —O—, —S—, —CO—, —SO— or —SO.sub.2—.

A method includes providing a layered structure on a substrate, the layered structure including a bottom layer formed over the substrate, a hard mask layer formed over the bottom layer, a material layer formed over the hard mask layer, and a photoresist layer formed over the material layer, exposing the photoresist layer to a radiation source, developing the photoresist layer, where the developing removes portions of the photoresist layer and the material layer in a single step without substantially removing portions of the hard mask layer, and etching the hard mask layer using the photoresist layer as an etch mask. The material layer may include acidic moieties and/or acid-generating molecules. The material layer may also include photo-sensitive moieties and crosslinking agents.

An actinic ray-sensitive or radiation-sensitive resin composition includes a resin X including a repeating unit derived from a compound including two or more structural moieties consisting of an anionic moiety and a cationic moiety, and a polymerizable group, in which the compound generates an acid including an acidic moiety derived from the anionic moiety in the two or more structural moieties by irradiation with actinic rays or radiation.

Provided is a radiation-sensitive resin composition capable of exhibiting sensitivity and CDU performance at a sufficient level when a next-generation technology is applied, and a pattern formation method. A radiation-sensitive resin composition containing: a radiation-sensitive acid generating resin comprising a repeating unit A having an acid-dissociable group represented by the following formula (1) and a repeating unit B including an organic acid anion moiety and a sulfonium cation moiety containing an aromatic ring structure having a fluorine atom; and a solvent; in the formula (1), R.sup.T is a hydrogen atom, a fluorine atom, a methyl group, or a trifluoromethyl group; R.sup.X is a monovalent hydrocarbon group having 2 to 20 carbon atoms; and Cy represents an alicyclic structure having 3 to 20 ring members and formed together with a carbon atom to which this is bonded.

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A resist composition containing: (A) a resin containing a repeating unit having an acid-labile group and not containing a repeating unit having an aromatic substituent; (B) a photo-acid generator shown by a general formula (B-1); and (C) a solvent, where W.sub.1 represents a cyclic divalent hydrocarbon group having 4 to 12 carbon atoms and containing a heteroatom; W.sub.2 represents a cyclic monovalent hydrocarbon group having 4 to 14 carbon atoms and not containing a heteroatom; Rf represents a divalent organic group shown by the following general formula; and M.sup.+ represents an onium cation. This provides a resist composition and a patterning process that uses the resist composition that show a particularly favorable mask dimension dependency (mask error factor: MEF), LWR, and critical dimension uniformity (CDU) particularly in photolithography where a high-energy beam such as an ArF excimer laser beam is used as a light source. ##STR00001##

Disclosed herein is a method for producing a composition for resist top coat layer, the method including: polymerizing a monomer solution containing a fluorine-containing monomer in a presence of a polymerization initiator that cleaves to generate an active species having 7 or more carbon atoms in total to obtain a fluorine-containing resin A; and mixing the fluorine-containing resin A and a solvent.

A measurement system to be used in a micro-device manufacturing line is equipped with: a plurality of measurement devices which performs measurement processing on each substrate; and a controller that can control the plurality of measurement devices, and the plurality of measurement devices includes at least one first measurement device which acquires position information of a plurality of marks formed on a substrate.

A pattern-forming method includes: forming a pattern on an upper face side of a substrate; applying a first composition to a sidewall of the pattern; forming a resin layer by applying a second composition to an inner face side of the sidewall of the pattern coated with the first composition; allowing the resin layer to separate into a plurality of phases; and removing at least one of the plurality of phases. The first composition contains a first polymer. The second composition contains a second polymer. The second polymer includes a first block having a first structural unit and a second block having a second structural unit. The polarity of the second structural unit is higher than the polarity of the first structural unit. Immediately before forming of the resin layer, a static contact angle θ (°) of water on the sidewall of the pattern satisfies inequality (1). $\begin{array}{cc}\alpha \ge \theta \ge \frac{\alpha +\beta }{2}& \left(1\right)\end{array}$

A resist composition including a base component which exhibits changed solubility in a developing solution under action of acid and an acid-generator component (B) which generates acid upon exposure, the base component including a polymeric compound containing a structural unit having an acid decomposable group, the amount of the structural unit having an acid decomposable group, based on the combined total of all structural units contained in the base component being 51 mol % to 59 mol %, and the structural unit having an acid decomposable group includes a structural unit represented by general formula (a1-1) shown below (in which R represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group or a halogenated alkyl group; Z represents a single bond or an alkyl group; and C.sub.p is a group represented by general formula (Cp-1) shown below). ##STR00001##

A novel onium salt and a resist composition comprising the same as a PAG are provided. When processed by photolithography using KrF or ArF excimer laser, EB or EUV, the resist composition is reduced in acid diffusion and improved in exposure latitude, MEF, and LWR.