- REDIRECT
In
semiconductor fabrication, a
resist is a thin layer used to transfer a circuit pattern to the semiconductor substrate which it is deposited upon. A resist can be patterned via
lithography to form a (sub)micrometer-scale, temporary mask that protects selected areas of the underlying substrate during subsequent processing steps. The material used to prepare said thin layer is typically a viscous solution. Resists are generally proprietary mixtures of a
polymer or its precursor and other small molecules (e.g. photoacid generators) that have been specially formulated for a given lithography technology. Resists used during
photolithography are called
photoresists.