Patent ID: 7910283

Claim:
An antireflective coating for use in a photolithography process using exposure light with a wavelength of up to 200 nm, said antireflective coating being formed from a coating composition comprising a silicon-containing polymer, an acid generator, and an organic solvent, wherein said silicon-containing polymer satisfies the expression 0.05≦M/(L+M+N)≦0.14 in which L is the number of Si—O bonds, M is the number of Si—Si bonds, and N is the number of Si—C bonds per polymer unit weight, and said silicon-containing polymer is obtained through co-hydrolytic condensation of a silane mixture comprising a plurality of silicon-silicon bond-containing hydrolyzable silane compounds having the general formula (1): R (6-m) Si 2 X m (1) wherein each R is independently a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon group of 1 to 20 carbon atoms, each X is independently an alkoxy group, an alkanoyloxy group, or a halogen atom, and m is a number from 3 to 6 provided that the compound of formula (1) wherein m is 3 or 4 is predominant, and at least one hydrolyzable silane compound having the general formula (2): A a SiB (4-a) (2) wherein each A is independently hydrogen or a substituted or unsubstituted monovalent hydrocarbon group of 1 to 20 carbon atoms, each B is independently an alkoxy group, an alkanoyloxy group, or a halogen atom, and a is 0 or 1, and wherein said silicon-containing polymer has a weight average molecular weight of up to 20,000, with a polymer having a weight average molecular weight of up to 500 being present in an amount of up to 5% by weight of the entire silicon-containing polymer.