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AZ ECI 3007 process recipe

AZ ECI 3007 is the thinnest of three grades in Merck's AZ ECI 3000 series of general-purpose, high-throughput positive-tone cross-over (i-line/g-line) photoresists for plasma/RIE and wet-etch applications, spin-coating to roughly 0.6-1.15 µm across the datasheet's 1500-5000 rpm plotted range.

https://nanyte.com/photoresists/az-eci-3007 · last updated 2026-07-10

At a glance
Manufacturer
Merck
Tone
positive
Chemistry
DNQ-novolak
Thickness
0.6–1.1 µm
Applications
Etch mask · Electroplating / molding
Etch maskSuitable for

Cross-checked — two independent extractions agree.

01 / Coating

Spin coating

AZ ECI 3007 is spin-coated to 0.6–1.1 µm. The curve below is redrawn from the manufacturer's published data — read your target thickness off the vertical axis and take the matching spin speed as a starting point.

Spin curve for AZ ECI 3007: film thickness in µm against spin speed in rpm.0.000.501.01.52.01k2k3k4k5kSPIN SPEED (rpm)THICKNESS (µm)
Data points
AZ ECI 3007 — film thickness (µm) by spin speed (rpm)
Seriesrpmµm
AZ ECI 300715001.1
20000.95
30000.75
40000.65
50000.60

Values are the manufacturer's starting points, not a guarantee; verify on your own tool. Characterize on-tool. Series digitized from a published figure were independently cross-checked by a second blind read; treat those values as approximate (±10 %).

read from figure ("SPIN CURVES (150mm Wafers)"), p.1 of AZ ECI 3000 Series datasheet — legend-labeled "ECI 3007" (blue circle marker), clearly separated (~2x factor) from the ECI 3012 and ECI 3027 traces across the full 1500-5000 rpm plotted range, unlike closely-spaced multi-grade charts seen elsewhere in this project.

Redrawn from the manufacturer's published data — hover to read values between points, click to pin.

Multi-grade chart plots ECI 3007 / ECI 3012 / ECI 3027 together (legend, distinct colors, p.1); unlike some other multi-grade AZ charts, the three traces stay well-separated (roughly 2x factor between adjacent grades) across the whole 1500-5000 rpm range, so the ECI 3007 trace could be identified with reasonable confidence — but the reading is still a visual estimate from a plotted curve, not a printed numeric table, and no point is extrapolated past the 1500-5000 rpm plotted range. No spin accel/dispense parameters, no edge-bead removal procedure, and no rehydration hold are published for this grade; AZ EBR Solvent/AZ EBR 70/30 are listed only as companion thinning/edge-bead products (COMPANION PRODUCTS, p.2) with no protocol given. Rehydration is not applicable — this is a thin film (<1.2 µm), not a thick-DNQ resist.

Adhesion
HMDS recommended — "Oxide forming substrates (Si, etc.) should be primed with HMDS (hexamethyl disilazane) or other suitable primer prior to coating AZ ECI 3000." (SUBSTRATE PREPARATION, p.10). No specific HMDS bake temp/time is published.
02 / Bake

Soft bake

Soft bake
60 s
Notes
No ECI 3007-specific reference-process table is published (all worked reference processes in this document are built around ECI 3012 or ECI 3027). Falling back to the series-wide Typical Process line: "Soft Bake: 90° to 110°C*/60s" — temperature is a range, time is a single stated value. Higher end of range improves adhesion to metals. Bakes may be performed on hotplates or in vented bake ovens (PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS, p.10); no default is stated, so method is left null.

SOURCE: TYPICAL PROCESS, p.1; SOFT BAKE, p.10 of AZ ECI 3000 Series datasheet.

03 / Exposure

Exposure dose

The manufacturer does not publish a clearing dose for AZ ECI 3007. Determine it with a dose array on your own tool.

As published
"AZ ECI 3000 is sensitive to exposure wavelengths between 310 and 450nm. 365-436nm is recommended." (EXPOSURE, p.10). The series is described as "positive tone cross-over (i-line/g-line) photoresists" (APPLICATION, p.1).
Post-exposure bake
110 °C

Not published for this resist: Dose at 365 nm, Dose at 405 nm — characterize on-tool.

04 / Development

Development

Time
60 s
Developer family
TMAH-based

Not published for this resist: Developer, Dilution, Method, Rinse — characterize on-tool.

SOURCE: TYPICAL PROCESS, p.1; DEVELOPERS list, COMPANION PRODUCTS, p.2 of AZ ECI 3000 Series datasheet.

05 / Post-processing

Hard bake, etch & strip

Stripper
AZ 100 Remover, AZ 300T, AZ 400T, or AZ Kwik Strip™ (STRIPPING, p.10): "AZ ECI 3000 strips readily in removers designed for DNQ/novolac type photoresists." Patterns baked above 140°C may cross-link and become harder to strip.

Not published for this resist: Hard bake, Descum, Etch resistance, Storage — characterize on-tool.

SOURCE: HARD BAKE, p.10 of AZ ECI 3000 Series datasheet.

06 / Applications

Where it's used

Etch maskElectroplating / molding

AZ ECI 3007 is a general-purpose, i-line/g-line cross-over positive resist for thin (0.6-1.15 µm), high-throughput plasma/RIE and wet-etch masking — the thinnest of three grades (3007/3012/3027) in Merck's AZ ECI 3000 series, sharing chemistry, developer compatibility, and process temperature windows with its siblings. The datasheet resolves no grade-specific reference process for ECI 3007 itself — every worked exposure/PEB/develop example is built around ECI 3012 or ECI 3027 instead — so soft bake, PEB, and develop here fall back to the series-wide Typical Process line rather than a grade-specific table. The only ECI 3007-specific exposure data is a thin-film-interference (dose-to-clear swing) curve (p.6), which is a physical clearing-dose artifact, not a stated process dose; treat the series' 365-436 nm exposure window as a starting point and run a dose array rather than expect a single vendor number. Like the rest of the series it is a DNQ/novolac positive resist compatible with both TMAH (MIF) and inorganic developers, stripping in standard DNQ/novolac removers, with wet-etch and plating adhesion called out as target applications.

07 / Sources

Sources & disclaimer

Research using this resist
  1. Lipp et al.. Aperture-Controlled Fabrication of All-Dielectric Structural Color Pixels. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2023). doi:10.1021/acsami.3c03353
    750 nm ECI 3007 patterned on a maskless writer to tune structural color

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 2026-07-10.

Cite this recipe

NANYTE. "AZ ECI 3007 process recipe." NANYTE Photoresist Library. https://nanyte.com/photoresists/az-eci-3007. Accessed 2026-07-10.

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