One or more plasma etching techniques are provided. Selective plasma etching is achieved by introducing a gas into a chamber containing a photoresist over a substrate, establishing a bias at a frequency to convert the gas to a plasma at the frequency, and using the plasma to etch the photoresist. The frequency controls an electron density of the plasma and by maintaining a low electron density causes free radicals of the plasma to chemically etch the photoresist, rather than physically etching using ion bombardment. A mechanism is thus provided for chemically etching a photoresist under what are typically physical etching conditions.

A template for imprint lithography can include a body. The body can include a base surface and have a recession extending from the base surface lying along a base plane, the recession including a main portion having a tapered sidewall. In a particular embodiment, the recession includes an intermediate portion having an intermediate sidewall. The intermediate sidewall is rounded or at least part of the intermediate sidewall lies at a different angle as compared to an average tapered angle of the main portion. In another aspect, a method of fabricating a semiconductor device can include forming a patterned resist layer having a tapered sidewall over a substrate having device layers; patterning the device layers using the patterned resist layer; and etching portions of at least some of device layers to expose lateral portions of the at least some device layers. The template is well suited for forming 3D memory arrays.

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for applying a liquid onto a substrate. The method for treating a substrate, the method includes: a liquid supplying step of supplying a treatment liquid for forming a liquid film on the substrate while rotating the substrate; and a liquid diffusing step of diffusing the treatment liquid discharged to the substrate by rotating the substrate, after the liquid supplying step. The liquid diffusing step includes: a primary diffusion step of rotating the substrate at a first diffusion speed; and a secondary diffusion step of rotating the substrate at a second diffusion speed, after the primary diffusion step. The second diffusion speed is higher than the first diffusion speed. Accordingly, the treatment liquid can be applied to the substrate again by performing the secondary diffusion step, making it possible to adjust the thickness of a photosensitive film.

A method for patterning topography is provided. A substrate is provided with a plurality of lines. The method includes aligning and preparing a first directed self-assembly (DSA) pattern overlying the lines, transferring the first pattern to form first line cuts, aligning and preparing a second DSA pattern overlying the lines, and transferring the second pattern to form second line cuts. The DSA patterns include trenches and holes of diameter d, and each comprise a block copolymer having HCP morphology, a characteristic dimension L.sub.o approximately equal to the line pitch, and a minority phase of the diameter d. The trenches are wet by a majority phase of the block copolymer and guide formation of the holes. The aligning and preparation of the DSA patterns include overlapping the two sets of trenches such that areas between holes of one pattern and adjacent holes of the other pattern are shared by adjacent trenches.

There is provided a new coating liquid for resist pattern coating. A coating liquid for resist pattern coating comprising a component A that is a polymer including at least one hydroxy group or carboxy group; a component B that is a sulfonic acid of A-SO.sub.3H (where A is a linear or branched alkyl group or fluorinated alkyl group having a carbon atom number of 1 to 16, an aromatic group having at least one of the alkyl group or the fluorinated alkyl group as a substituent, or a C.sub.4-16 alicyclic group optionally having a substituent); and a component C that is an organic solvent capable of dissolving the polymer and including ether or ketone compound of R.sup.1—O—R.sup.2 and/or R.sup.1—C(═O)—R.sup.2 (where R.sup.1 is a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group or fluorinated alkyl group having a carbon atom number of 3 to 16; and R.sup.2 is a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group or fluorinated alkyl group having a carbon atom number of 1 to 16), a method of forming a resist pattern using the coating liquid, and a method for forming a reverse pattern using the coating liquid.

According to the present disclosure, there are provided a surface treatment agent having the advantage that the raw material components can be dissolved in a short time during preparation of the surface treatment agent and capable of exerting a good water repellency imparting effect, and a method of manufacturing a surface-treated body with the use of the surface treatment agent. The surface treatment agent according to the present disclosure includes the following components: (I) at least one kind selected from the group consisting of silicon compounds represented by the following general formulas [1], [2] and [3]; (II) at least one kind selected from the group consisting of a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound represented by the following general formula [4], a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic compound represented by the following general formula [5], and imidazole; and (III) an organic solvent. ##STR00001##

One aspect of the disclosure relates to and integrated circuit structure and methods of forming the same. The integrated circuit structure may include: a thin gate dielectric device on a substrate, the thin gate dielectric device including: a first interfacial layer over a set of fins within the substrate, wherein the interfacial layer has a thickness of approximately 1.0 nanometers (nm) to approximately 1.2 nm; and a thick gate dielectric device on the substrate adjacent to the thin gate dielectric device, the thick gate dielectric device including: a second interfacial layer over the set of fins within the substrate; and a nitrided oxide layer over the second interfacial layer, wherein the nitrided oxide layer includes a thickness of approximately 3.5 nm to approximately 5.0 nm.

A component such as a display may have a substrate and thin-film circuitry on the substrate. The thin-film circuitry may be used to form an array of pixels for a display or other circuit structures. Metal traces may be formed among dielectric layers in the thin-film circuitry. Metal traces may be provided with insulating protective sidewall structures. The protective sidewall structures may be formed by treating exposed edge surfaces of the metal traces. A metal trace may have multiple layers such as a core metal layer sandwiched between barrier metal layers. The core metal layer may be formed from a metal that is subject to corrosion. The protective sidewall structures may help prevent corrosion in the core metal layer. Surface treatments such as oxidation, nitridation, and other processes may be used in forming the protective sidewall structures.

A p channel TFT of a driving circuit has a single drain structure and its n channel TFT, an LDD structure. A pixel TFT has the LDD structure. A pixel electrode disposed in a pixel unit is connected to the pixel TFT through a hole bored in at least a protective insulation film formed of an inorganic insulating material and formed above a gate electrode of the pixel TFT, and in an inter-layer insulation film disposed on the insulation film in close contact therewith. These process steps use 6 to 8 photo-masks.

A plasma etch resist material modified by an inorganic protective component via sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS) and methods of preparing the modified resist material. The modified resist material is characterized by an improved resistance to a plasma etching or related process relative to the unmodified resist material, thereby allowing formation of patterned features into a substrate material, which may be high-aspect ratio features. The SIS process forms the protective component within the bulk resist material through a plurality of alternating exposures to gas phase precursors which infiltrate the resist material. The plasma etch resist material may be initially patterned using photolithography, electron-beam lithography or a block copolymer self-assembly process.