Developer: TMAH Manual 02

Developer: TMAH Manual 02 is a manually operated puddle developer for single wafers or chips. The wafers or chips are loaded manually one by one into the developer, but the developer dispense, puddle time, water rinse, and drying is performed automatically.

The development uses the TMAH based AZ 726 MIF developer (2.38 % TMAH in water with a small amount of wetting agent).

Training video

The user manual, user APV, and contact information can be found in LabManager - requires login

Process information

All recipes use the following structure:

Pressurize the TMAH canister
Dispense puddle while rotating substrate slowly
Puddle development with agitation of substrate
Spin off developer
Clean substrate and chamber with DI water
Dry substrate and chamber with nitrogen

Multipuddle recipes repeat steps 2-4 for the given number of puddles.

Process recipes

(Updated 2026-01-12, JEHEM)

-Rinse-
1x015s
1x030s
1x060s
1x120s
2x060s
5x060s

Agitation

Testing showed that adding agitation to the puddle step gave better uniformity in the development rate over the entire area of the substrate as well as increased development rate.

Tests were performed on under-exposed resist, specifically for showing the difference between the agitation and non-agitation puddle development - the measured results cannot necessarily be transferred directly to a working process, only the vague general behavior of the two process setups; faster/slower development speed and better/worse uniformity across substrate.

	Non-agitation	Agitation
Test results	Slower development Worse uniformity	Faster development Better uniformity
Normalized development rate	1	1.20
Non-uniformity	21%	11%
Agitation	None	15 cycles per minute, 20 rpm, 500 rpm/s
Substrate	100 mm SSP silicon
Resist	AZ 5214E
Exposure dose	50 mJ/cm² (~50% of normal dose)
Development	Single puddle for 60 seconds
Developer	AZ 726 MIF (2.38% TMAH)

Equipment performance and process related parameters

Tool purpose	Development of UV resists: AZ nLOF 2020 AZ MIR 701 AZ 5214E AZ 4562 Development of DUV resists: KrF M230Y KrF M35G
Developer	AZ 726 MIF (2.38% TMAH)
Development method	Puddle
Handling method	Non-vacuum chuck for 100 mm & 150 mm wafers Non-vacuum chuck for chips and 50 mm wafers
Process temperature	Room temperature
Process agitaion	15 cycles per minute
Process rinse	DI water
Substrate sizes	Chips 50 mm wafers 100 mm wafers 150 mm wafers
Substrate materials	All cleanroom allowed materials Film, or pattern, of all materials except Type IV
Substrate batch size	1