Quantum electrodynamical formulation of photochemical acid generation and its implications on optical lithography

Abstract The photochemical acid generation is refined from the first principles of quantum electrodynamics. First, we briefly review the formulation of the quantum theory of light based on the quantum electrodynamics framework to establish the probability of acid generation at a given spacetime point. The quantum mechanical acid generation is then combined with the deprotection mechanism to obtain a probabilistic description of the deprotection density directly related to feature formation in a photoresist. A statistical analysis of the random deprotection density is presented to reveal the leading characteristics of stochastic feature formation.