Polysilanes for semiconductor fabrication

Polysilanes have various interesting properties and many applications have been proposed. However, low durability at elevated temperature and that toward light exposure on polysilanes have limited their application fields. The most promising application is lithography for LIS fabrication. The unusual photo-reactivity and high etching durability render polysilanes the candidate of most promising material for the LSI lithography in future, where new materials have been required in order to fabricate micro-pattems less than 0.2 mum. In this report, application of polysilanes to semiconductor fabrication, particularly, bilayer resists and antireflection layers with high etching properties, is reviewed. This review includes synthesis of new polysilanes, photo-reactivity, amplification of the photo-reactivity, bilayer resists developable with aqueous solutions, pattern fabrication with all dry process, UV absorptions, anti-reflection properties, durability toward plasma etchings and the pattern transfer. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.