Polymeric photoresists are limited in their sensitivity, resolution, and line-edge roughness due to the molar mass distribution and variation in composition of single polymer chains. While most synthetic polymers have monomer units distributed randomly along the polymer chain, and a widely adjustable length and composition. In this work we describe polypeptoids characterized by low stochastics that possess identical molecular size, composition, and sequence with high molecular uniformity.<br/>Polypeptoids with 10 repeat-units were synthesized using a solid-supported synthesis approach in an automated peptide synthesizer. The resulting 10mers were purified and a solubility change upon exposure was induced by the protection of hydroxybenzene side-groups. The chemical structure, and thermal properties of these polypeptoid positive tone CARs were verified using MADLI-TOF and DSC, respectively. The lithographic performance of the resists was evaluated by electro-beam and extreme-UV lithography. Well defined line-space patterns of less than 30 nm HP were achieved. While most resist compositions were aqueous base developable it was found that the sequence, the hydrophobicity and size of the side-groups led to a notable change in solubility and resist performance, presumably due to a change in inter-chain chain interactions. However, future work is required to further improve the performance and understand the structural change on a molecular level of these promising sequence-defined resists.

Sequence-defined polypeptoid CARs for electron-beam and EUV lithography

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