title: Polystyrene negative resist for high-resolution electron beam lithography.
abstract: We studied the exposure behavior of low molecular weight polystyrene as a negative tone electron beam lithography (EBL) resist, with the goal of finding the ultimate achievable resolution. It demonstrated fairly well-defined patterning of a 20-nm period line array and a 15-nm period dot array, which are the densest patterns ever achieved using organic EBL resists. Such dense patterns can be achieved both at 20 and 5 keV beam energies using different developers. In addition to its ultra-high resolution capability, polystyrene is a simple and low-cost resist with easy process control and practically unlimited shelf life. It is also considerably more resistant to dry etching than PMMA. With a low sensitivity, it would find applications where negative resist is desired and throughput is not a major concern.
authors.affiliation: Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN), University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave, West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. bcui@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Siqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Celal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Con
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cui