The present invention is a planarizing agent for forming an organic film, including an aromatic-group-containing compound having a molecular weight represented by a molecular formula of 200 to 500, wherein a blended composition that includes the planarizing agent and a preliminary composition containing an organic film-forming resin and a solvent, and having a complex viscosity of 1.0 Pa.Math.s or more in a temperature range of 175° C. or higher has a temperature range in which a complex viscosity of the blended composition is less than 1.0 Pa.Math.s in a temperature range of 175° C. or higher. This provides a planarizing agent for forming an organic film to yield a composition for forming an organic film having a high planarizing ability; a composition for forming an organic film containing this planarizing agent; a method for forming an organic film using this composition; and a patterning process.

A composition for forming a resist underlayer film for lithography, the resist underlayer film for lithography containing silicon and being dissolved and removed with an alkaline developer in accordance with a resist pattern together with an upper layer resist during development of the upper layer resist, the composition comprising a component, which is a silane compound containing a hydrolyzable silane, a hydrolysate of the silane, a hydrolytic condensate of the silane, or any combination of these, and an element, which is an element of causing dissolution in an alkaline developer. The element, which is an element of causing dissolution in an alkaline developer, is contained in the structure of the compound as the component.

A lithography method in semiconductor fabrication is provided. The method includes generating a plurality of drops of a target material through a plurality of nozzles, adjacent two of the plurality of nozzles having a distance less than a width of a first one of the adjacent two of the plurality of nozzles, wherein the plurality of drops are aggregated to an elongated droplet; generating a laser pulse to convert the elongated droplet into plasma that generates an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation; exposing a semiconductor substrate to the EUV radiation.

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). $\begin{array}{cc}\alpha \ge \theta \ge \frac{\alpha +\beta }{2}& \left(1\right)\end{array}$

The present disclosure relates to a film formed with a precursor and an organic co-reactant, as well as methods for forming and employing such films. The film can be employed as a photopatternable film or a radiation-sensitive film. In particular embodiments, the carbon content within the film can be tuned by decoupling the sources of the radiation-sensitive metal elements and the radiation-sensitive organic moieties during deposition. In non-limiting embodiments, the radiation can include extreme ultraviolet (EUV) or deep ultraviolet (DUV) radiation.

A composition for forming a resist underlayer film that enables the formation of a desired resist pattern; and a method for producing a resist pattern and a method for producing a semiconductor device, each of which uses the resist underlayer film-forming composition. The resist underlayer film-forming composition comprises an organic solvent and the reaction product of (A) a hydantoin-containing compound that has two epoxy groups and (B) a hydantoin-containing compound different from (A). This reaction product is preferably the reaction product of a secondary amino group present in the hydantoin-containing compound (B) and the epoxy group present in the hydantoin-containing compound (A).

Provided is a composition for forming a protective film using a polymer having an imide group: that is cured under a film-forming condition not only in the air but in an inert gas; that can form a protective film having excellent heat resistance, embedding and planarization ability for a pattern formed on a substrate, and good adhesiveness to the substrate; and that can form a protective film having excellent resistance against an alkaline aqueous hydrogen peroxide. A composition for forming a protective film against an alkaline aqueous hydrogen peroxide, the composition including: (A) a polymer having a repeating unit represented by the following general formula (1A) and having at least one or more fluorine atoms and at least one or more hydroxy groups, a terminal group thereof is a group of any one of the following general formulae (1B) and (1C); and (B) an organic solvent,

##STR00001##

##STR00002##

##STR00003##

wherein R.sub.1 represents any one group represented by the following formula (1D), and two or more kinds of R.sub.1 are optionally used in combination.

##STR00004##

According to an embodiment, a wafer (W) includes a layer (EL) to be etched, an organic film (OL), an antireflection film (AL), and a mask (MK1), and a method (MT) according to an embodiment includes a step of performing an etching process on the antireflection film (AL) by using the mask (MK1) with plasma generated in a processing container (12), in the processing container (12) of a plasma processing apparatus (10) in which the wafer (W) is accommodated, and the step includes steps ST3a to ST4 of conformally forming a protective film (SX) on the surface of the mask (MK1), and steps ST6a to ST7 of etching the antireflection film (AL) by removing the antireflection film (AL) for each atomic layer by using the mask (MK1) on which the protective film (SX) is formed.

A composition for forming a resist underlayer film that enables the formation of a desired resist pattern; a method for producing a resist pattern and producing a semiconductor device, which uses this composition for forming a resist underlayer film. A composition for forming an EUV resist underlayer film, said composition containing an organic solvent and a reaction product of a diepoxy compound and a compound represented by formula (1). (In formula (1), Y1 represents an alkylene group having from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, wherein at least one hydrogen atom is substituted by a fluorine atom; each of T1 and T2 independently represents a hydroxy group or a carboxy group; each of R1 and R2 independently represents an alkyl group having from 1-10 carbon atoms, said alkyl group being optionally substituted by a fluorine atom; and each of n1 and n2 independently represents an integer from 0 to 4.)

A laser radiation system according to a viewpoint of the present disclosure includes a first optical system configured to convert a first laser flux into a second laser flux, a multimirror device including mirrors, configured to be capable of controlling the angle of the attitude of each of the mirrors, and configured to divide the second laser flux into laser fluxes and reflect the laser fluxes in directions to produce the divided laser fluxes, a Fourier transform optical system configured to focus the divided laser fluxes, and a control section configured to control the angle of the attitude of each of the mirrors in such a way that the Fourier transform optical system superimposes the laser fluxes, which are divided by the mirrors separate from each other by at least a spatial coherence length of the second laser flux, on one another.