Patent ID: 8617653

Claim:
An over-coating agent for forming patterns which is applied to cover a substrate having photoresist patterns thereon and allowed to shrink under heat so that the spacing between adjacent photoresist patterns is reduced, with the applied film of the over-coating agent being removed to form patterns, wherein (a) the over-coating agent comprises a water soluble polymer, a monomer of the same type as the monomer that constitutes the water soluble polymer and which is left unpolymerized, and a dimer formed from the monomer, and (b) the total content of the monomer and the dimer is 10% by mass or less relative to the total content of the water-soluble polymer, the monomer, and the dimer, wherein the water-soluble polymer is a mixed polymer of a water-soluble polymer processed by being subjected to ion exchange treatment and a water-soluble polymer not subjected to ion exchange treatment.