AZ ECI 3027 process recipe

AZ ECI 3027 is the thickest grade in Merck's AZ ECI 3000 series of positive-tone, i-line/g-line cross-over photoresists for plasma/RIE and wet-etch applications, coating to roughly 2.4-4.4 µm and documented in this datasheet with a full reference process at a 2.5 µm film thickness resolving 0.6 µm dense lines.

https://nanyte.com/photoresists/az-eci-3027 · last updated 2026-07-10

At a glance

Manufacturer: Merck (AZ Electronic Materials)
Tone: positive
Chemistry: DNQ-novolak
Thickness: 2.4–4.4 µm
Exposure dose: 262 mJ/cm² at 365 nm
Developer: AZ 726MIF
Applications: Etch mask · Electroplating / molding · General prototyping

Etch maskSuitable for

Cross-checked — two independent extractions agree.

Coat2.4–4.4 µm Softbake100 °C · 60 s · hotplate Expose262 mJ/cm² at 365 nm Develop60 s

—01 / Coating

Spin coating

AZ ECI 3027 is spin-coated to 2.4–4.4 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.

Data points

AZ ECI 3027 — film thickness (µm) by spin speed (rpm)
Series	rpm	µm
AZ ECI 3027 as supplied	1500	4.4
	2000	3.8
	3000	3.1
	4000	2.7
	5000	2.4

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)" chart, p.1 of AZ ECI 3000 Series Technical Datasheet (Merck, Rev. 03/21); AZ ECI 3027 identified by its purple/violet legend marker (topmost curve), distinct from AZ ECI 3007 (blue, bottom curve) and AZ ECI 3012 (red/magenta, middle curve) plotted on the same axes.

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

Datasheet does not state spin ramp/acceleration, dispense volume, or static vs dynamic dispense for the spin-curve chart. Spin coating is named as one of several compatible coating methods (spray and roller coating are also mentioned, p.10 COATING) but no method-specific parameters are published beyond that. No edge-bead-removal recipe is given, only that AZ EBR Solvent or AZ EBR 70/30 are the companion EBR products (p.2).

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. Contact your products representative for detailed information on pre-treating with HMDS." Source: SUBSTRATE PREPARATION, p.10. (A p.8 example process for AZ ECI 3012 — a different grade in this series — separately used 'HMDS vapor' as the primer ahead of an oxide-etch adhesion test, consistent with this recommendation, but that example is not AZ ECI 3027-specific.)

—02 / Bake

Soft bake

Soft bake: 100 °C · 60 s · hotplate
Notes: This is the REFERENCE PROCESS condition for AZ ECI 3027 (2.5 µm film on bare Si) on p.4, using a proximity hotplate. The series-wide TYPICAL PROCESS section (p.1) separately states a broader 90-110°C range with a fixed 60 s time for the whole ECI 3000 series (higher end of the range improves adhesion to metals); the AZ ECI 3027-specific reference-process value (100°C) sits inside that range.

SOURCE: REFERENCE PROCESS (Dense lines in AZ ECI 3027 Photoresist), p.4; TYPICAL PROCESS, p.1

—03 / Exposure

Exposure dose

The manufacturer publishes 262 mJ/cm² at 365 nm (i-line (365 nm) nominal dose stated for the REFERENCE PROCESS (Dense lines in AZ ECI 3027 Photoresist), p.4: "i-line @ 262mJ/cm2 nominal* (0.54NA, 0.6s) Nikon Stepper", at a 2.5 µm coated film thickness on bare Si, developed with AZ 726MIF. Series-wide TYPICAL PROCESS (p.1) separately states only "310-450nm sensitive" without a specific dose.). 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: 262 mJ/cm²
Dose at 405 nm: Not published — characterize on-tool
As published: i-line (365 nm) nominal dose stated for the REFERENCE PROCESS (Dense lines in AZ ECI 3027 Photoresist), p.4: "i-line @ 262mJ/cm2 nominal* (0.54NA, 0.6s) Nikon Stepper", at a 2.5 µm coated film thickness on bare Si, developed with AZ 726MIF. Series-wide TYPICAL PROCESS (p.1) separately states only "310-450nm sensitive" without a specific dose.
Post-exposure bake: 120 °C · 60 s

SOURCE: REFERENCE PROCESS (Dense lines in AZ ECI 3027 Photoresist), p.4

—04 / Development

Development

Developer: AZ 726MIF
Time: 60 s
Method: puddle
Developer family: TMAH-based

SOURCE: REFERENCE PROCESS (Dense lines in AZ ECI 3027 Photoresist), p.4 ("Develop: AZ 726MIF, 60s single puddle @ 23°C")

—05 / Post-processing

Hard bake, etch & strip

Etch resistance: Datasheet demonstrates wet-etch adhesion/profile retention for AZ ECI 3012 (a different, thinner grade in the same series, not AZ ECI 3027 specifically) through an ITO etch (FeCl3/HCl, 70s @ 45°C, on a 200nm ITO film) and a thermal-oxide etch (6 min @ 22°C, on a 690nm oxide film), both shown with SEM cross-sections retaining resist profile (WET ETCH ADHESION CHARACTERISTICS, p.8). No etch-resistance data specific to AZ ECI 3027 is published; the series is marketed generally for 'plasma/RIE and wet etching applications' (APPLICATION, p.1).
Stripper: AZ 100 Remover, AZ 300T, AZ 400T, or AZ Kwik Strip — removers designed for DNQ/novolac type photoresists. Strip times vary with thermal history; patterns processed above 140°C may cross-link and become harder to strip, and charred resist will not dissolve in solvent-based removers. Source: STRIPPING, p.10.

SOURCE: PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS / HARD BAKE, p.10

—06 / Applications

Where it's used

Etch maskElectroplating / moldingGeneral prototyping

AZ ECI 3027 is the thickest grade in Merck's AZ ECI 3000 series, a general-purpose, high-throughput positive DNQ/novolak cross-over resist explicitly usable at both i-line (365 nm) and g-line (436 nm), marketed for plasma/RIE and wet-etch masking (the DNQ/novolak classification comes directly from the datasheet's own stripper-compatibility statement, p.10). Unlike AZ ECI 3007/3012 (documented elsewhere in this datasheet at ~1.2 µm film with resolution down to 0.4 µm lines/0.5 µm holes), the dedicated AZ ECI 3027 reference process (p.4) is run at 2.5 µm film thickness — 100°C/60s soft bake, i-line exposure at 262 mJ/cm² nominal (0.54NA, 0.6s, Nikon stepper; ~240 mJ/cm² if developing with AZ 300MIF instead of the AZ 726MIF actually used), 120°C/60s PEB, and a 60s AZ 726MIF single-puddle develop at 23°C — and resolves dense lines down to roughly 0.60 µm at that dose, per the p.4 Dense Line Linearity chart. The series-wide 'production resolution to 0.4µm' headline claim (p.1) applies to the thinner grades' reference processes, not to AZ ECI 3027 at its documented 2.5 µm thickness. On the p.1 multi-grade spin-speed chart (ECI 3007/3012/3027 plotted together), the AZ ECI 3027 curve was identified by its distinct purple/violet legend marker as the topmost (thickest) curve; the reported points are a figure read, not a printed table, and warrant a visual QC pass against the source chart. Soft bake, PEB, and hard bake are also given as series-wide ranges (90-110°C, 105-115°C, 100-115°C respectively) in the generic TYPICAL PROCESS/PROCESS CONSIDERATIONS sections — the reference-process values above were preferred where available since they are resist- and thickness-specific.

—07 / Sources

Sources & disclaimer

Merck (AZ Electronic Materials) — AZ ECI 3027 datasheet (Rev. (03/21)) · accessed 2026-07-10

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 3027 process recipe." NANYTE Photoresist Library. https://nanyte.com/photoresists/az-eci-3027. Accessed 2026-07-10.

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