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Base titration methods are used to determine C-parameters for twenty EUV photoresist platforms. X-ray reflectometry is used to measure the density of these resists, and leads to the determination of absorbance and film quantum yields (FQY). Ultrahigh levels of Photoacid Generator (PAG) show divergent mechanisms for production of photoacids beyond PAG concentrations of 0.35 moles/liter. The FQY of sulfonium PAGs level off, whereas resists prepared with iodonium PAG show FQYs that increase beyond PAG concentrations of 0.35 moles/liter, reaching record highs of 8-13 acids generated/EUV photons absorbed.

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Extreme ultraviolet lithography based nanofabrication using a bilevel photoresistA contact-hole deprotection blur metric has been used to monitor the deprotection blur of an experimental open platform resist ͑EH27͒ as the wt % of base and photoacid generator ͑PAG͒ were varied. A six times increase in base wt % is shown to reduce the size of successfully patterned 1:1 line-space features from 52 to 39 nm without changing deprotection blur. Corresponding isolated line edge roughness is reduced from 6.9 to 4.1 nm. A two times increase in PAG wt % is shown to improve 1:1 line-space patterning from 47 to 40 nm without changing deprotection blur or isolated line edge roughness. A discussion of improved patterning performance as related to shot noise and deprotection blur concludes with a speculation that the spatial distribution of PAG molecules has been playing some role, perhaps a dominant one, in determining the uniformity of photogenerated acids in the resists that have been studied.