SUNY Polytechnic Institute undergraduate students Justin Nhan and Jacob Sitterly, along with Professor of Nanobioscience Dr. Robert Brainard, published, “Modeling the acid-catalyzed cleavage of carbon-oxygen bonds,” in Proceedings SPIE 11612, Advances in Patterning Materials and Processes XXXVIII.

The research is centered around photoresists, the light-sensitive layers used in nearly every step in the manufacture of integrated circuits. The research team described a new approach to modeling one of the most critical reactions that occurs “during image formation using chemically amplified photoresists,” the cleavage of carbon-oxygen bonds with acid.

Overall, this research could lead to more efficient technologies for the manufacture of transistors with features on the nanoscale. This, in turn, could lead to ever faster computers or phones.

Read the publication here.