Patent ID: 8586282

Claim:
A resist patterning process comprising: coating a chemically amplified resist composition onto a photomask blank having a chromium compound film at an outermost surface, and heating the chemically amplified resist composition to eliminate an excessive solvent component remaining in the coated film, to obtain a resist film; conducting pattern exposure on the resist film by high energy radiation; and developing the resist film with a developer, wherein the chemically amplified resist composition comprises one or more kinds of amine compounds at least having: a carboxyl group; no hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a nitrogen atom as a basic center; and no nitrogen atoms as part of an aromatic ring, and wherein the amine compound having a carboxyl group and no hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to a nitrogen atom as a basic center is an amine compound represented by the following general formula (1): wherein R 1 and R 2 are each a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group having 2 to 20 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 20 carbon atoms, an aralkyl group having 7 to 20 carbon atoms, a hydroxyalkyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxyalkyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an acyloxyalkyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, or an alkylthio-alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms; R 1 and R 2 may be bonded to each other to form a ring structure; R 3 is a hydrogen atom, a linear, branched, or cyclic alkyl group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 6 to 20 carbon atoms, an aralkyl group having 7 to 20 carbon atoms, a hydroxyalkyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkoxyalkyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an acyloxyalkyl group having 2 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkylthio-alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, or a halogen group; and R 4 is a single bond or a linear, branched, or cyclic alkylene group having 1 to 20 carbon atoms, or an arylene group having 6 to 20 carbon atoms.