Patent ID: 8808975

Claim:
A pattern-forming method comprising: applying a resist composition comprising (A) a resin capable of increasing its solubility in an alkali developer by an action of an acid and (B) a sulfonium salt compound capable of generating an acid upon irradiation with actinic ray or radiation onto a support to form a resist film, the sulfonium salt compound comprising a sulfonium cation represented by the following formula (B-1) and an anion represented by the following formula (B-2); exposing the resist film through an immersion liquid; and developing the exposed resist film, wherein the acid generated by the sulfonium salt compound (B) satisfies conditions of V≧230 and V/S≦0.93 taking van der Waals volume of the acid as V (Å3), and van der Waals surface area of the acid as S (Å2): wherein, in the formula (B-1), R 201 , R 202 and R 203 each independently represent an organic group having from 1 to 30 carbon atoms, and two of R 201 , R 202 and R 203 may be bonded to form a cyclic structure which may comprises an oxygen atom, a sulfur atom, an ester bond, an amido bond or a carbonyl group, under the proviso that at least one of R 201 , R 202 or R 203 is an aryl group, and in the formula (B-2), Yx represents an alkyl group substituted with a fluorine atom, Yc represents a cycloalkyl residue having 6 or more carbon atoms, which contains a polycyclic cycloalkyl structure, does not have a fluorine atom and has a straight chain alkyl structure, and k represents an integer of from 1 to 2, wherein the resin (A) has a monocyclic or polycyclic alicyclic hydrocarbon structure, the resin (A) has a lactone group, and the resin (A) contains only (meth)acrylate repeating units.