High-speed development analyzer based on quartz crystal microbalance

Abstract Polymer dissolution in a solvent is important for many applications including lithography. The dissolution kinetics of the polymer films are investigated using reflectance spectroscopy, high-speed atomic force microscopy, and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Although real-time observation is a powerful method for investigating polymer dissolution, the time resolution is approximately 50–100 ms, which is inadequate for analyzing fast-dissolving polymer films such as extreme ultraviolet resists. This study reports on a high-speed QCM development analyzer with a time resolution of 8 ms. The performance of the analyzer is demonstrated.