Polymer materials for microlithography.

Astonishing progress has been made in VLSI electronic devices in the last decade. These advances are placing increasing demands on the technology of microlithography that is used to generate high resolution patterns. In 1976, state-of-the- art devices contained a few thousand transistors with minimum features of 5 to 6 microns. In comparison, today's devices contain over 1 million transistors and minimum features of 1.0 microns.. Within the next 10 to 15 years, some new form of lithography will be required with a capability of producing submicron features. The technology options to conventional photolithography are short wavelength photolithography, scanning electron beam, x-ray, and scanning ion beam lithography.