US Patent 8257910 Underlayers for EUV lithography

The present invention provides methods of fabricating microelectronics structures and the resulting structures formed thereby using EUV lithographic processes. The method involves utilizing an underlayer immediately below the photoresist layer. The underlayer can either be directly applied to the substrate, or it can be applied to any intermediate layer(s) that may be applied to the substrate. The preferred underlayers are formed from spin-coatable, polymeric compositions. The inventive method allows reduced critical dimensions to be achieved while improving adhesion and reducing or eliminating pattern collapse issues.