A negative resist composition comprising a polymer comprising recurring units having at least two acid-eliminatable hydroxyl or alkoxy groups in the molecule is effective for forming a resist pattern having a high resolution and minimal LER while minimizing defects.

A photosensitive resin composition comprising (A) a vinyl ether compound, (B) an epoxy-containing silicone resin, and (C) a photoacid generator is provided. The composition enables pattern formation using radiation of widely varying wavelength, and the patterned film has high transparency, light resistance, and heat resistance.

A resist composition containing: (A) a resin containing a repeating unit having an acid-labile group; (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##

A resist composition including a resin component having a constitutional unit derived from a compound represented by General Formula (a01-1) and a constitutional unit derived from a compound represented by General Formula (a02-1), and an acid generator component composed of an anion moiety and a cation moiety. In General Formula (a01-1), W.sup.1 represents a polymerizable group-containing group, C.sup.t represents a tertiary carbon atom, R.sup.11 represents an unsaturated hydrocarbon group which may have a substituent, R.sup.12 and R.sup.13 represent a chain saturated hydrocarbon group which may have a substituent, and a carbon atom at an α-position of C.sup.t constitutes a carbon-carbon unsaturated bond. In General Formula (a02-1), W.sup.2 represents a polymerizable group-containing group, Wa.sup.2 represents an aromatic hydrocarbon group, and n2 represents an integer in a range of 1 to 3 ##STR00001##

A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes forming a first resist layer over a substrate, and forming a second resist layer over the first resist layer. The second resist layer is patterned to expose a portion of the first resist layer to form a second resist layer pattern. The first resist layer is exposed to extreme ultraviolet (XUV) radiation diffracted by the second resist layer pattern. Portions of the first resist layer exposed to the XUV radiation diffracted by the second resist layer are removed.

Disclosed herein is a photosensitive composition comprising an epoxy resin, a photoacid generator, and an antioxidant. The disclosed composition is useful for producing relief images having reduced yellowing or other discoloration due to thermal oxidation.

A chemically amplified resist composition contains (A) a polymer compound containing one or two or more kinds of repeating units, at least one kind of the repeating units is polymerized from a polymerizable monomer with not more than 1000 ppm of a residual oligomer in a form of dimer to hexamer. An object of the present invention is to provide: a chemically amplified resist composition capable of achieving favorable resolution, pattern profile, and line edge roughness, and simultaneously suppressing development-residue defect, which would otherwise cause mask defect; and a method for forming a resist pattern by using this composition.

A resist composition comprising a base polymer and an acid generator in the form of a sulfonium or iodonium salt of a fluorinated sulfonic acid having a phenylene group which is substituted with a fluorinated cyclic group and a nitro group is provided. The resist composition offers a high sensitivity, reduced LWR and improved CDU independent of whether it is of positive or negative tone.

A method for processing a substrate is described. The method includes forming a metal containing resist layer onto a substrate, patterning the metal containing resist layer, and performing a post exposure bake on the metal containing resist layer. The post exposure bake on the metal containing resist layer is a field guided post exposure bake operation and includes the use of an electric field to guide the ions or charged species within the metal containing resist layer. The field guided post exposure bake operation may be paired with a post development field guided bake operation.

A photosensitive resin composition is provided comprising (A) 100 pbw of a phenolic hydroxyl group-containing resin, and (B) 0.1-18 pbw of an epoxy additive in the form of a compound containing 1-8 epoxy groups per molecule, containing nitrogen, sulfur or phosphorus, and having a molecular weight of 50-6,000. The composition has an improved bonding force to metal wirings.