Developer tuning approach for iodine-containing EUV chemically amplified resists toward high-resolution patterning

Continued miniaturization in semiconductor manufacturing demands sub-10 nm resolution for next-generation EUV lithography, driving interest in iodine-containing chemically amplified resists (CARs) owing to iodine's high EUV absorption cross-section. However, iodine's hydrophobicity and specific intermolecular interactions reduce developer solubility and induce resist swelling, degrading patterning performance. We investigate a developer-tuning approach using nonionic surfactants as dissolution aids in a TMAH-based developer, hypothesizing that precise control of the hydrophilic–lipophilic balance (HLB) is essential for optimizing both dissolution and swelling suppression. In-situ quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) measurements and electron beam (EB) lithography evaluations demonstrate that the optimized developer achieved a minimum half-pitch of 25 nm with reduced bridging and collapse defects, confirming that surfactant HLB tuning is an effective strategy for high-resolution iodine-containing CAR patterning.