Direct patterning of solution deposited metal oxides

Graduation date: 2009Patterning of metal oxides typically involves a multi step process, involving \ud depositing a resist, patterning that resist with some form of lithography, etching the \ud oxide through the resist, and finally removing. This process can be simplified if the \ud resist is removed and replaced with a metal oxide that can be directly patterned. \ud Solution deposition of metal oxides allows the possibility of depositing materials that \ud are responsive to traditional lithographic patterning methods. A directly patterned \ud resist can be integrated into devices with less difficulty. It is also possible, with a \ud directly patterned metal oxide, to consider this material also as a resist for the \ud patterning of another material. This metal oxide can then be considered an inorganic \ud resist. Inorganic resists have proven to offer a higher resolution and etch resistance \ud than a comparable polymer resist. The work presented here represents efforts to \ud develop directly patterned metal oxides that exhibits these desired resist properties, but \ud which also competes with polymer resist in terms of sensitivity, the one area inorganic \ud resists have always performed unsuitably. An inorganic resist has been developed that \ud exhibits excellent performance in these important metrics, as well as others which are required of state-of-the-art resists. This inorganic resist has shown sensitivity to a \ud variety of modern exposure sources. The patterning chemistry which has been \ud develop is adaptable to a large number of metal oxides. Direct pattern of metal oxides \ud also offers potential for the modification of the material through solution based or \ud solid state methods in order to access a variety of material properties not found in the \ud initial metal oxide