Approaching Angstrom-Scale Resolution in Lithography Using Low-Molecular-Mass Resists (<500 Da)

Resists that enable high-throughput and highresolution patterning are essential in driving the semiconductor technology forward. The ultimate patterning performance of a resist in lithography is limited because of the trade-off between resolution, line-width roughness, and sensitivity; improving one or two of these parameters typically leads to a loss in the third. As the patterned feature sizes approach angstrom scale, the trade-off between these three metrics becomes increasingly hard to resolve and calls for a fundamental rethinking of the resist chemistry. Low-molecular-mass monodispersed metalcontaining resists of high atom economy can provide not only very high resolution but also very low line-width roughness without sacrificing sensitivity. Here we describe a modular metal-containing resist platform (molecular mass