Design and study of water-soluble positive- and negative-tone imaging materials

The interest in imaging materials with improved environmental characteristics has led us to consider imaging formulations coated from and developed in aqueous media, thus avoiding the need for both organic solvents and basic aqueous developer solutions. We have previously reported on the design of several negative-tone resists operating via radiation-induced crosslinking, and while the performance of these negative-tone systems met our basic goals, the resolution that could be achieved was limited due to swelling occurring during development. We now report on various other designs based on polyoxazoline, poly(vinyl alcohol), and methacrylate resins that circumvent this problem with approaches towards both negative- and positive- tone systems.