Resist materials for proton beam writing: A review

Highlights: • PBW can now achieve 19 nm details in HSQ and 65 nm in PMMA. • A complete table of resist materials for PBW has been presented, including minimum feature size, achievable aspect ratio, suitability for electroplating and where available contrast of the resist. • PBW fabricated molds can now be used for single DNA molecule detection, single DNA manipulation and large scale Genome mapping. - Abstract: Proton beam writing (PBW) is a lithographic technique that has been developed since the mid 1990s, initially in Singapore followed by several groups around the world. MeV protons while penetrating materials will maintain a practically straight path. During the continued slowing down of a proton in material it will mainly interact with substrate electrons and transfer a small amount of energy to each electron, the induced secondary electrons will modify the molecular structure of resist within a few nanometers around the proton track. The recent demonstration of high aspect ratio sub 20 nm lithography in HSQ shows the potential of PBW. To explore the full capabilities of PBW, the understanding of the interaction of fast protons with different resist materials is important. Here we give an update of the growing number of resist materials that have been evaluated for PBW. In particular we evaluate the exposure and development strategies for the most promising resist materials like PMMA, HSQ, SU-8 and AR-P and compare their characteristics with respect to properties such as contrast and sensitivity. Besides an updated literature survey we also present new findings on AR-P and PMGI resists. Since PBW is a direct write technology it is important to look for fast ways to replicate micro and nanostructures. In this respect we will discuss the suitability and performance of several resists for Ni electroplating for mold fabrication in nano imprint technologies. We will summarize with an overview of proton resist characteristics like sensitivity, contrast, aspect ratio and suitability for electroplating