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ArF water immersion lithography is considered as the most promising candidate for the next generation lithography technology which enables 45nmhp(hp = half pitch) node device manufacturing. With a higher refractive index fluid(HIF) it is expected to extend optical lithography further to the 32nmhp node. It is generally accepted that developing a suitable fluid is one of the most critical technical issues in this HIF immersion lithography. We report here a promising high refractive index fluid, HIL-1, which satisfies the fundamental requirements for immersion lithography. HIL-1 was developed by screening wide variety of organic compounds. Its refractive index and transmittance at 193nm and 23^oC are 1.64 and higher than 98%/mm, respectively. It has less interaction with resist film than water does. Using a two beam interference exposure tool, 32nmhp patterns have been successfully achieved with HIL-1 immersion lithography.

Photosensitive Column Spacer Materials for Liquid Crystal Display Panels

Toru Kajita, Toshihiro Nishio, Tomoko Iwabuchi, Hitoshi Hamaguchi

Described in this paper are photosensitive column spacer materials used for patterning columnar structures to control the cell gap of LCD panels. The negative-tone photosensitive materials are comprising(meth) acrylate copolymer, multi-functional acrylic crosslinker, photo-initiator, and organic solvent. The column spacer patterns are obtained from the coated material film using photolithography on a proximity aligner with a high pressure mercury lamp, and post-baked to achieve three-dimensional network prearranged in the unique material design. The column spacers are evaluated on a broad range of characteristics. The highly-crosslinked network structure brings several advantages as permanent component; i.e., excellent chemical resistance, good thermal durability, non-contamination to liquid crystal, and high recovery ratio of compression property. Also, there exists an obvious relation between lithographic conditions and compression property, which is affected by pattern size and shape of the column spacer. The obtained column spacer patterns showed excellent practical reliabilities and good potentials to be successfully utilized for the cell gap control for high definition TFT-LCD panels.

Keyword: TFT-LCD, photosensitive, column spacer, compression property, cell gap

Toughness Improvement of Epoxy Resins for Photofabrication

Katsuyuki Takase, Ryoji Tatara, Noriyasu Shinohara, Takayoshi Tanabe

Photofabrication technology is getting more and more important to save the cost and time for development in automobile, electric and machinery industries. An improvement of toughness of cationic curing resin was studied in order to apply photofabricated models to simulation purpose. Influence of jag on side wall surface of photofabricated models was investigated on snap fit durability. It was estimated that the jag on the side wall behaved as a small crack that induced breakage of the hook. A smooth side wall gave high snap fit durability to photofabricated models. In addition, the influence of cure behavior of the photofabricated resins was studied as the factor that gave smoothness to the side wall. A combination of suitable photo acid generator and a phenol derivative gave larger cure depth growth and higher snap fit durability. It was estimated that the grooves between layers were filled up by growth of curing region and low undulation of side wall introduced good snap fit durability. A newly developed resin, SCR720 showed far better mechanical properties especially excellent snap fit durability.

Influence of Diffused Light on Visual Perception of Print Gloss in Coated Paper

Takeshi Watanabe, Nobuhiro Matsuda, Hisashi Matsui

Recently, coated paper is required characteristics of visual perception components like print gloss, sheet gloss and brightness and so on. It is a trend in the differentiation of the coated paper quality to give the product these components. "Print Gloss" is especially an important final quality of coated paper. However, for the print gloss, as for "the specular gloss" measured with standard gloss meter and "the visual perception of print gloss" that man feels in sense, all might be not the same, and be different. In this study, we considered that the visual perception of print gloss was influenced by permeation, absorption and diffusion of light in the ink layer(resins and ink pigments) and the coating layer(pigments and binders), in addition to ruggedness on printed surface, and investigated clarification of the key factor and the quantification of the visual perception of print gloss with using goniophotometer and scanning whitelight interferometer. As a result, it was found that the roughness on the printed surface of 10μm or less influenced to the visual perception of print gloss, furthermore the internal diffuse reflection light in the ink layer and the coating layer greatly influenced. And then the quantification of the visual perception of print gloss was also able to be established, it reported with this paper.

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