| Abstract: | A new photoresist stable to 500°C has been developed. The addition of potassium dichromate to a polyamic acid, believed to be the condensation product of pyromellitic dianhydride and 4,4′-diaminodiphenylether, results in a photosensitive polymer which can be cast or spun. The resultant film after exposure, development and post-bake is a crosslinked aromatic polyimide. An efficient developing solution consisting of a 5:1 mixture of hexamethylphosphoramide and dimethylsulfoxide has been discovered. The system has been fully characterized in terms of composition, film formation, exposure, development, hardening and removal. This material has already proven useful as an area-controlled, thermally stable dielectric and as a sputter-etch resist. It has been demonstrated that under the conditions of sputter-etching (bombardment of substrate with Ar, Ar+ species with energies from 1–300 eV) commercial photoresists, of the polyisoprene variety, char to the extent of being ineffective as a masking material. Under these same conditions, the thermally stable resist retains its film integrity and uniform sputter-etch rate. An exemplary processing sequence is included as an appendix. |
