https://nanyte.com/photoresists/az-15nxt · last updated 2026-07-26
- Manufacturer
- AZ Electronic Materials
- Tone
- negative
- Chemistry
- Chemically amplified
- Thickness
- 6.4–14.6 µm
- Exposure dose
- 400 mJ/cm² at 365 nm
- Developer
- AZ 300 MIF
- Applications
- Etch mask · Electroplating / molding · High aspect ratio
Cross-checked — two independent extractions agree on the spin curve and the single-value figures.
- Substrate
- Resist
- Exposed
Spin coating
Data points
| Series | rpm | µm |
|---|---|---|
| AZ 15nXT (450 CPS) | 1000 | 15 |
| 1500 | 11 | |
| 2000 | 9.4 | |
| 2500 | 8.3 | |
| 3000 | 7.4 | |
| 4000 | 6.4 |
Values are the manufacturer’s starting points, not a guarantee — characterize on your own tool. Series digitized from a published figure are approximate (±10 %).
read from figure, p.7 of AZ 15nXT (450 CPS) Photoresist - Lithographic and Plating Performance Comparison (AZ Electronic Materials, Jan 2009), titled 'AZ 15nXT (450 CPS) Spin Speed Curve'. Single-grade chart (one trace, no legend ambiguity); values estimated at the six marked data points and cross-checked against the same trace redrawn with square markers on the comparison chart p.8 ('AZ 15nXT (115 CPS) and AZ 15nXT (450 CPS) Spin Speed Curves'), which shows consistent point positions.
- Coating: hand dispense on 150 mm silicon, Opti-Trak Coat and Bake, spin 1000-4000 rpm for 30 sec, softbake 110°C/3 min integrated with the coat track (p.7-8).
- EDGE BEAD is severe and explicitly studied (p.15, 200 mm wafer): at 1000 rpm the film rises from a ~17.8 µm field thickness to ~25 µm at 1 mm from the wafer edge
- even at 3000 rpm the edge rises from ~7.8 µm field to ~9.6 µm at 1 mm from the edge.
- Field thickness stabilizes by roughly 5-6 mm in from the edge at every speed tested.
- REHYDRATION is not mentioned anywhere in this document (unlike AZ 125nXT and AZ 12XT, which both explicitly state 'Rehydration Hold: None'), so nothing is claimed either way for this grade; 'not required' cannot be inferred just because this is a chemically amplified resist.
- The document disagrees with itself on thickness: the 'Spin Speed Curve' (p.7, plotted above) reads ~14.6 µm at 1000 rpm and ~6.4 µm at 4000 rpm, but two other figures in the same deck disagree - the coating-uniformity wafer-map means (p.14) report 17.8 µm at 1000 rpm / 7.8 µm at 3000 rpm, and the edge-bead study's own field-thickness values (p.15) match those higher numbers, not the p.7 curve.
- That is roughly a 20% gap at 1000 rpm between two nominally equivalent 'hand dispense, Opti-Trak coat and bake, 150 mm Si' runs in the same document.
- The curve plotted here is the one the document captions as its spin-speed curve; real coats in this deck ran measurably thicker in two other places.
- Adhesion
- HMDS not required — Not discussed.
Soft bake
- Soft bake
- 110 °C · 3 min
- Notes
- Stated as a single value (not a range) in Process Conditions: '110°C / 180 seconds' (=110°C/3 min), and repeated identically in every other process example in the deck (pp.7,8,16-19).
SOURCE: p.5 (Process Conditions); corroborated pp.7,8,11,16-19
Exposure dose
The manufacturer publishes 400 mJ/cm² at 365 nm. Dose scales with film thickness and depends on your optics, so treat it as a starting point and run a dose array.
- Dose at 365 nm
- 400 mJ/cm²
- Dose at 405 nm
- Not published — characterize on-tool
- As published
- 400 ± 50 mJ/cm² on an i-line stepper is the reference dose the whole document is built around, including its delay studies and exposure-latitude work.
- Post-exposure bake
- 120 °C · 60 s
SOURCE: p.5; corroborated as the boxed/highlighted reference dose in Exposure Latitude figures pp.11,22
Development
- Developer
- AZ 300 MIF
- Dilution
- 2.38% TMAH (AZ 300 MIF, ready-to-use)
- Method
- puddle
- Developer family
- TMAH-based
Not published for this resist: Time, Rinse — characterize on-tool.
SOURCE: p.5 (Process Conditions); corroborated 'AZ 300 MIF/3x50sec Spray/Puddle @23°C' pp.11,16-19
Hard bake, etch & strip
- Etch resistance
- Cover page title lists 'Cu RDL, TSV, and other plating & etch applications' but the document gives no etch rate, selectivity, or other quantified etch-resistance data anywhere.
- Stripper
- AZ Kwik Strip, 70°C, 3 min (p.21 Ni/Cu Plating Compatibility; corroborated p.23 Summary: 'stripped completely in AZ Kwik Strip at 70°C for 3 min')
Not published for this resist: Hard bake, Descum, Storage — characterize on-tool.
Where it's used
Practical notes from the datasheet
AZ 15nXT (450 CPS) is a chemically amplified negative-tone resist built specifically for Cu RDL and TSV plating/etch masks, not a general-purpose thick film. Because it is CAR chemistry, the post-exposure bake (120°C/60 s here) is the step that actually defines the pattern - unlike a DNQ resist, exposure alone does not develop the image. The document reports both exposure-to-PEB and coat-to-exposure delay studies on copper out to 23 hours with only minor CD drift (roughly 4.85-4.95 µm at a 5 µm nominal line across most of the delay window), suggesting this grade is comparatively forgiving of queue-time variation once softbaked, though no rehydration statement is made either way. Edge bead is pronounced at low spin speed and should be planned for on production coaters. Stripping is a single documented step (AZ Kwik Strip, 70°C/3 min) with no underplating reported after Cu, Ni, or Au electroplating.
Sources & disclaimer
- AZ Electronic Materials — AZ 15nXT (450 CPS) datasheet (January 2009) · accessed 2026-07-10
- Tatikonda et al.. Sacrificial Layer Technique for Releasing Metallized Multilayer SU-8 Devices. Micromachines (2018). doi:10.3390/mi9120673AZ 15nXT is proposed as a sacrificial layer that stays chemically stable through SU-8 processing; the authors give two cross-linking routes and three release routes to free metallized multilayer SU-8 devices such as an electrospray-ionization chip.
Manufacturer datasheet values are starting points; optimal parameters depend on your substrate, equipment and environment. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. NANYTE is not affiliated with the manufacturers listed. Last updated 2026-07-26.