[labnetwork] Dow ebeam resist delays

[Price, Aimee]

Hi Franklin,
I’m sorry to hear this.  Yes Dow has been seemingly having issues for a couple years, which has gotten worse in recent months.  I received a notification from my distributor Krayden that they were discontinuing small bottles (see attached).  Others at MAEBL have reported strange delays and other oddities with distribution.  I can speak about that offline if you want details.

If you do go with the larger sizes, which may work better in a production environment, do make sure that the shelf life is appropriate and not close to the expiration date.  There have been concerns about this, but I haven’t personally had that issue.  It does need to be refrigerated or preferably frozen for better quality and shelf life.

There is an alternate supplier that some of us in the MAEBL community are starting to qualify.  It is called H-SiQ from Dischem.  That might be an option for you, though I realize you’d need to qualify it.  Depending on your processes, you may find little difference.  Dischem may actually be on this listserve, so maybe they could respond directly.  I purchased 4% in February in very small quantities and it has been used for a photonics project.  That project uses a high contrast develop strategy with some longer bakes.

I’d be happy to talk more about what we have found at Ohio State and as a MAEBL community if you’d like.  This is a very popular topic amongst the EBL community globally, so I’m betting you will get quite a bit of feedback.

Best,
Aimee Bross Price

President/Co-founder MAEBL

Sr. Research Associate
The Ohio State University
Nanotech West Lab
Institute for Materials Research
1381 Kinnear Road
Suite 100
Columbus, OH 43212
614-292-2753



ces at mtl.mit.edu <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> On Behalf Of Franklin Monzon
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2020 6:47 PM
To: labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu
Subject: [labnetwork] Dow ebeam resist delays

Hi All,

We at HRL are having enormous difficulty with procurement of ebeam resist from Dow, and I wonder if anyone else is having this problem. Specifically, we are trying to acquire XR-1541. We use 2%, 4%, and 6% formulations but are having special problems with 2%.

Lead times have increased generally in 2020 (perhaps for some good reasons!), but the distributors we work with now cannot even get a firm timeline from Dow. We told them we are willing to order larger quantities than usual but have been informed that that won't help.

The shortage is starting to cause delays on key government programs, so I'd very much appreciate any insight from this group.

Thanks for your advice!
FM
*********************************
Franklin Monzon
Director, Microfabrication Technology Laboratory
HRL Laboratories


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