Dec. 2000
Resist Stripping: The Real World
A key tool to our industry is the photoresist, and
most of the industry uses a negative-acting dry
film that is developed and stripped by waterbased
alkaline solutions. In theory, the stripping
process should be simplicity itself, as these
photoresists are acid (for the chemists among us,
they are known as Lewis Acids), and they are
stripped by at least a partial neutralization of
their acidity, which breaks up the polymers, and
allows the resist to disperse. Ah, if life were only so simple.
Rudy Sedlak, RD Chemical Company
