Photo base generator (PBG) generates anion (base) upon irradiation of light in the UV range. The technology of anionic UV curing using the base generated from PBG is expected to apply to various applications such as coating, ink, dental material, photoresist, etc. In addition to the originally developed PBGs, we have many variations of PBG co-developed with Arimitsu, an associate professor at Tokyo University of Science, in our lineup.
In recent years, the level of fine processing for the advanced semiconductor devices proceeds to nanometer range, and mass production of 3Xnm generation with ArF excimer laser has already begun. On the other hand, 2Xnm generation is rapidly being developed. As for the acid generators and polymers used for the advanced photoresist materials, it is required for the quality to be quite high because of the semiconductor refinement to nanometer range.
We can provide the acid generators and polymers with high quality by utilizing the development/manufacturing technology/analytic technology of photoresist materials, which have been accumulated for years. In addition, we have recently reconsidered the quality assurance system as the whole company to respond to high requirements from customers, and we introduced the consistent procedure for quality control and statistic management from the materials to the products. The development of the advanced analytic technologies enabled us to manage the content of trace metals in the order of single digit ppb.
