Abstract:
Patterning of metal oxides typically involves a multi step process, involving
depositing a resist, patterning that resist with some form of lithography, etching the
oxide through the resist, and finally removing. This process can be simplified if the
resist is removed and replaced with a metal oxide that can be directly patterned.
Solution deposition of metal oxides allows the possibility of depositing materials that
are responsive to traditional lithographic patterning methods. A directly patterned
resist can be integrated into devices with less difficulty. It is also possible, with a
directly patterned metal oxide, to consider this material also as a resist for the
patterning of another material. This metal oxide can then be considered an inorganic
resist. Inorganic resists have proven to offer a higher resolution and etch resistance
than a comparable polymer resist. The work presented here represents efforts to
develop directly patterned metal oxides that exhibits these desired resist properties, but
which also competes with polymer resist in terms of sensitivity, the one area inorganic
resists have always performed unsuitably. An inorganic resist has been developed that
exhibits excellent performance in these important metrics, as well as others which are required of state-of-the-art resists. This inorganic resist has shown sensitivity to a
variety of modern exposure sources. The patterning chemistry which has been
develop is adaptable to a large number of metal oxides. Direct pattern of metal oxides
also offers potential for the modification of the material through solution based or
solid state methods in order to access a variety of material properties not found in the
initial metal oxide.
