| HS Code | 233507 |
| Product Name | Negative PR Developer & Rinse Electronic/EL Grade |
| Chemical Name | Propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate (PGMEA) |
| Cas Number | 108-65-6 |
| Molecular Formula | C6H12O3 |
| Molecular Weight | 146.19 g/mol |
| Grade | Electronic/EL |
| Appearance | Clear, colorless liquid |
| Purity | ≥99.5% |
| Boiling Point | 145-146 °C at 760 mmHg |
| Flash Point | 42 °C (closed cup) |
| Specific Gravity | 0.96-0.97 at 25 °C |
| Water Content | ≤0.1% |
| Solubility In Water | Slightly soluble (approx. 3 wt%) |
| Use | Negative photoresist development and rinsing |
As an accredited Negative PR Developer & Rinse Electronic/EL Grade factory, we enforce strict quality protocols—every batch undergoes rigorous testing to ensure consistent efficacy and safety standards.
| Packing | Packaged in a 4-liter amber HDPE bottle with secure closure, labeled for Electronic/EL Grade Negative PR Developer & Rinse. |
| Container Loading (20′ FCL) | 20′ FCL container solely loading Negative PR Developer & Rinse Electronic/EL Grade, palletized, securely packed, no co-loading, full container utilization. |
| Shipping | Typical shipping: UN1835, Tetramethylammonium hydroxide solution, Class 8, Packing Group II/III — Corrosive. Pack in UN-approved, leak-proof HDPE drums/bottles. Keep upright and segregated from acids and foodstuffs. Apply corrosive labels/placards; use ERG Guide 154. Confirm exact Packing Group and any exemptions on the product-specific SDS. |
| Storage | Store in a tightly sealed original container in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area. Keep away from heat, flames, direct sunlight, oxidizers, and acids. Avoid moisture contamination and physical damage. Ensure secondary containment and proper labeling. Check expiry dates regularly. Handling areas should have eye wash and safety equipment per SDS guidelines. |
| Shelf Life | Shelf life is typically 6–12 months unopened, stored at recommended temperatures, away from light, moisture, and contamination. |
On wafer-level packaging tracks that produce copper pillar and solder bump arrays, the negative-tone resist stack is developed with an electronic/EL-grade solvent developer and anhydrous rinse at 100 vol% operating strength; point-of-use dilution is not permitted because water ingress below the dispense nozzle is the dominant source of scum at the resist-metal seed interface. The developer-to-rinse volume ratio in a 200 mm wafer puddle/spray process is maintained at 1.2–1.8 L developer to 0.9–1.5 L rinse per 25-wafer lot, with developer bath replenishment at 8–12 vol% per shift after gravimetric solids loading exceeds 80–120 mg/L. Substrates exposed to >60% RH require a dehydration bake at 110 °C for 90 s before adhesion promoter application. The downstream process sequence includes spin-coating 15–100 µm dry film, soft bake at 95–110 °C, i-line exposure through a stepper or contact aligner, post-exposure bake, puddle development at 21–24 °C, two-stage rinse, and hard bake prior to copper electrodeposition from a cupric sulfate/sulfuric acid electrolyte. Compliance for the rinse path references SEMI C18-0218 for IPA-based rinse, ASTM D5127-13(2018) Type E-1 water for any downstream dilute rinse, and ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 5 for the lithography cell. Metal ion limits for Na, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, and Zn are held below 10 ppb each by ICP-MS. Terminal product types are Cu pillar interconnects, solder bump arrays, and plating-mold-defined redistribution structures used in flip-chip and fan-in wafer-level packages. A recurring production failure mode is post-development white haze at the Cu seed interface when residual water in the resist or substrate exceeds 0.1 wt%; the corrective action is nitrogen-purged pre-dry at 90 °C for 60 s immediately before exposure.
For microelectromechanical systems and microfluidic devices built from cross-linked epoxy negative resists, the developer/rinse pair is applied undiluted in immersion or spray development modules; the formulation addition ratio is zero-dilution, and any process-specific solvent adjustment is limited to ≤5 vol% fresh electronic-grade solvent only after Karl Fischer water verification at ≤0.05 wt%. A typical microfluidic master uses a 50 µm dry film spin-coated, soft baked at 65 °C for 5 min and 95 °C for 15 min, exposed at 365 nm with 250–300 mJ/cm², post-exposure baked, developed by puddle at 20–24 °C for 6–10 min, and rinsed in two stages with anhydrous isopropanol. Cleanroom operation and solvent handling are bounded by ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 5 and the solvent distillation range is verified by ASTM D1078-11(2019). Terminal finished products include microfluidic chips, microreactors, inkjet nozzle plates, and MEMS inertial sensor structural layers. On production-scale immersion tanks with nitrogen-blanketed recirculation, a moisture excursion above 0.1 wt% in the rinse bath produces a measurable increase in sidewall scallop amplitude in 10 µm channels; the rinse bath is typically dumped when water content reaches 0.08 wt% to avoid feature distortion. Batch-to-batch variance in unexposed film dissolution rate is held below ±6% when rinse input water content is controlled within 0.02–0.05 wt%, whereas water content above 0.1 wt% induces white haze and microchannel sidewall roughness.
Negative-working photosensitive polyimide and polybenzoxazole (PBO) formulations used for redistribution layers and stress-buffer passivation are processed with solvent developer/rinse materials that must not introduce amine or water contamination. Both developer and rinse are dispensed through 0.05 µm PTFE point-of-use membranes. Addition of the developer is performed at 100 vol% as received; high-pH aqueous TMAH developer is not substituted because solvent-developed PBO/polyimide resists rely on organic dissolution contrast rather than acid-base neutralization. The downstream process on 300 mm fan-out wafer lines includes spin-coating a 5–12 µm film, soft bake at 100–120 °C, broadband exposure at 350–450 nm with exposure energy of 150–250 mJ/cm², post-exposure bake, puddle development at 22–24 °C, two-stage rinse, and thermal cure at 250–320 °C in nitrogen. Control and compliance methods include ASTM D4052-22 for density, ASTM D1209-05(2019) for APHA color, SEMI C18-0218 for alcohol-based rinse, and ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 5 for the lithography cell. Terminal finished product types are chip-scale packages, fan-out wafer-level packages, and 2.5D interposers with Cu redistribution lines and spaces of 5–10 µm. The operational boundary is sharp: residual water in the developer above 0.05 wt% suppresses selective dissolution of unexposed PBO and leaves an organic veil that cannot be removed with additional rinse; on production lines, point-of-use desiccation or fresh developer replacement is mandatory before the lot is reworked.
Compound semiconductor lift-off lithography for GaAs and GaN power amplifiers, SAW/BAW filters, and micro-LED arrays uses a solvent-based negative-tone resist stack in which the developer/rinse pair creates a re-entrant sidewall profile after development. In a typical 100 mm GaAs production line, the developer is dispensed through a 0.1 µm PTFE membrane cartridge at 22–24 °C; the addition ratio to the puddle head is 100 vol% developer with no water diluent, and the rinse is applied in a two-stage spray at 0.6–1.0 L per wafer batch. Metal deposition follows resist patterning by electron-beam or thermal evaporation, and the subsequent lift-off step uses the same rinse chemistry to remove the resist and deposited metal debris. Batch acceptance references ASTM D1078-11(2019) for solvent distillation range, SEMI C18-0218 for rinse-grade isopropanol, and ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 4 for evaporation pre-lithography. Terminal products include GaAs HBT and pHEMT wafers, GaN HEMT wafers, SAW/BAW filter chips, and micro-LED arrays. The critical process conflict is that developer solvent strength must generate sufficient undercut but avoid swelling the unexposed resist; production lots with a distillation range of ±2 °C around a midpoint of 145 °C are monitored by ASTM D1078-11(2019) to reduce batch-to-batch lift-off yield variation. If the developer temperature drifts above 26 °C, edge undercut increases more than 0.2 µm and metal linewidth loss becomes evident; if the rinse water content exceeds 0.05 wt%, reticulated residue remains around deposited metal pads.
Through-silicon via and deep-trench patterning in 3D integration uses negative-tone resist as a high-selectivity etch mask because its cross-linked network resists silicon deep reactive-ion etching. The developer/rinse pair is dispensed at 100 vol% developer; for a 200 mm TSV wafer lot, fresh developer-to-rinse consumption is 2.0–3.0 L developer and 1.4–2.2 L rinse per 25-wafer lot. The process sequence includes vapor prime, spin coating of 30–80 µm resist, soft bake, exposure through a contact aligner, post-exposure bake, immersion/spray development at 21–25 °C, rinse, hard bake, DRIE with SF6/C4F8 cycles, and wet or plasma strip. Process qualification references ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 5 for lithography and ASTM D5127-13(2018) Type E-1 water for any final aqueous rinse after solvent rinse; the solvent rinse itself is aligned to SEMI C18-0218 for alcohol-based electronic-grade use. Terminal products are TSV wafers, interposers, and stacked memory packages. The limiting process threshold is residual developer at the silicon interface: if the rinse step is shortened below 20 s per 200 mm wafer, etch rate non-uniformity across the wafer rises by ±8% due to organic residues; if developer temperature drifts above 26 °C, the resist sidewall loss exceeds 0.5 µm and via critical dimension expands by 2–4 µm. Substrates with backside oxide exposed to the rinse should be pre-checked for pH shift; the solvent rinse is not a substitute for DI water cleaning after DRIE.
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Negative PR Developer & Rinse Electronic/EL Grade is supplied as a matched two-stream process chemical system for solvent-based development of negative-tone photoresists. The developer stream is a low-water, low-cation organic solvent blend formulated to dissolve the non-crosslinked fraction of negative resists after UV or e-beam exposure; the rinse stream is a low-residue organic rinsing agent selected to displace developer and dissolved resist solids from patterned features without attacking the radiation-crosslinked network. Both streams are filtered at final packaging through 0.05 µm PTFE membranes and are dispensed from fluoropolymer-lined drums or high-density polyethylene carboy systems equipped with nitrogen headspace blanketing. The Electronic/EL Grade designation indicates control of trace metal ions, anions, particles, and non-volatile residue to levels compatible with semiconductor, MEMS, and advanced packaging fabrication. The product is used in immersion, puddle, and spin-spray development on manual wet benches, semiautomatic wafer tracks, and contact aligners processing substrates from 100 mm to 300 mm. Typical applications include redistribution-layer patterning, copper pillar bumping, interposer via definition, MEMS structural features, and power-device front-end lithography where negative resists are chosen for film retention over topography, high aspect ratio, or resistance to aggressive etch environments.
The two components are assigned separate catalog codes under a single electronic-grade product family. The product family is available in 1-L, 4-L, and 200-L containers; batch-specific certificates of analysis are supplied by the electronic chemical manufacturer. Because EL grade is a manufacturer-controlled designation rather than a universal standard, acceptance limits should be reviewed on the certificate of analysis before qualifying the product for a specific device node. Batch release documentation includes density, kinematic viscosity, water content, non-volatile residue, trace cation panel, anion panel, and optical particle counts. Substitution of a non-EL rinse or dilution with technical solvent is not recommended because trace metal and particle recontamination may occur downstream of the final filter.
Electronic/EL grade suitability is evaluated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after direct injection of the developer or after evaporation and re-digestion of the non-volatile residue. The release window follows the principle that mobile ion contamination must not exceed the typical threshold-voltage drift budget for front-end transistor gates and must remain below the corrosion-promoting limits for aluminium and copper interconnect lines. Table 1 lists representative acceptance windows for solvent-based developers of this class; certificates of analysis for individual batches may report lower observed values. Water used for dilution, pH checks, and compatibility testing conforms to ASTM D5127-13(2020) Type E-1.2 low-total-organic-carbon water. Anion contamination is measured by ion chromatography with suppressed conductivity detection. Particle counts are collected by a laser particle counter in an ISO 14644-1:2015 Class 3 environment. The total trace metal target is ≤ 500 ppb; single-element limits are tightened for Na, K, Fe, Ca, Cu, and Zn because these species are known to alter oxide quality or promote metal ion migration.
| Parameter | Acceptance window or limit | Analytical method |
|---|---|---|
| Density at 20 °C | 0.87–0.97 g/cm³ | ASTM D4052-22 |
| Kinematic viscosity at 25 °C | 0.8–2.5 mm²/s | ASTM D445-21 |
| Water content | ≤ 500 ppm | Karl Fischer titration |
| Non-volatile residue | ≤ 5 ppm | Gravimetric after evaporation at 105 °C |
| Total trace metals | ≤ 500 ppb | ICP-MS |
| Sodium and potassium, each | ≤ 20 ppb | ICP-MS |
| Iron and calcium, each | ≤ 10 ppb | ICP-MS |
| Copper and zinc, each | ≤ 5 ppb | ICP-MS |
| Chloride and sulfate, each | ≤ 200 ppb | Ion chromatography |
| Particles ≥ 0.5 µm | ≤ 25 counts/mL | Optical particle counter |
In 200 mm wafer-level packaging lines using negative dry-film or liquid resists, the developer is dispensed through a point-of-use 0.05 µm PTFE membrane filter at a nozzle pressure of 0.15 MPa to 0.30 MPa. On a single-wafer track, the sequence is dispense, puddle, spin-off, rinse, and dry. Developer temperature is maintained at 21 °C to 23 °C; puddle time is commonly 20 s to 60 s for resist thicknesses between 5 µm and 25 µm. After development, the rinse is applied at 800 rpm to 1200 rpm to displace developer and resist solids from high-aspect-ratio trenches. In immersion development on a quartz bath, a megasonic transducer at 950 kHz may be used to reduce residue in blind vias, provided that cavitation energy is limited to avoid delamination of the crosslinked film. Observed failure modes on production wet benches include redeposition of resist scum if the developer bath is not replaced according to batch-life limits, and non-uniform drying stains if the rinse is allowed to evaporate before spin-off.
Closed-loop dispense and reclaim systems maintain developer temperature with a heat exchanger stability of ± 0.5 °C and employ a dry nitrogen sweep at 0.05 MPa over the reservoir. Water content is monitored online by NIR or by grab-sample Karl Fischer titration. If water content rises above 500 ppm, the developer may change selectivity because water reduces the solvent power for the unexposed resin and can promote phase separation. Dispense lines should therefore be purged with dry nitrogen during idle periods, and wet-bench exhaust should be balanced to prevent humid ambient air ingress. At relative humidity above 60 %, wafer surfaces should be dried immediately before development because adsorbed water alters local developer polarity and produces residue in tight features.
In MEMS and power-device lithography, negative resists are often processed at thicknesses above 20 µm for electroplating molds or deep silicon etch masks. In these cases, the developer must clear the unexposed volume without delaminating the resist from the substrate. A two-stage development is used: a static puddle of 40 s to 60 s to swell and dissolve the bulk of the unexposed film, followed by a shorter fresh developer puddle of 20 s to 30 s to remove the remaining interfacial layer. The rinse is then dispensed at low speed 500 rpm for 5 s before the final spin-dry at 1500 rpm to avoid pattern collapse in high-aspect-ratio mold features. For electroplating applications, residues of chloride, sulfate, or metal cations from a non-electronic-grade developer can poison the plating bath; therefore the EL-grade cation and anion limits are not cosmetic specifications but direct controls on yield loss.
Swelling of crosslinked negative-resist features during solvent development is the principal process conflict. The developer must solvate uncrosslinked resin quickly, but the same solvent mixture can penetrate the crosslinked network and produce reversible linewidth widening if the puddle is held beyond endpoint. Process literature for solvent-developed negative resists indicates that feature-width bias can range from 0.1 µm to 0.3 µm for 5-µm lines when development time is extended by 15 % past optical endpoint. The rinse therefore functions as a displacement step with a lower solubility parameter distance from the crosslinked film, reducing further solvent uptake and arresting swelling before drying. The rinse should be applied while the wafer surface is still wet with developer; allowing the developer to dry before rinsing creates a crust that is not removed by spin cleaning. Structures with aspect ratio greater than 5:1 are particularly sensitive to capillary forces during drying. A rinse with surface tension below 28 mN/m reduces collapse events; if the rinse surface tension exceeds 30 mN/m, adjacent lines may bridge during final spin-off. These limits are consistent with solvent-blend technical data, but specific product-level collapse thresholds will depend on resist crosslink density and feature geometry. Specific process windows for sub-2-µm geometries are not fully documented in public literature; therefore on-site challenge testing with the actual resist and wafer topography is required before committing the product to production.
Compared with aqueous alkaline developers used for positive photoresist, the solvent-based negative developer does not rely on deprotonation of carboxylic acid groups in a novolak or polyhydroxystyrene matrix. The removal mechanism is dissolution of the unexposed low-molecular-weight fraction in the solvent blend; exposed regions remain as an insoluble crosslinked network. Consequently, the product does not require bicarbonate or surfactant additives that can leave cation residues, and it is less aggressive to aluminium and copper than strongly alkaline TMAH solutions with pH above 13. However, the solvent-based system is flammable and must be handled in explosion-proof equipment, whereas aqueous TMAH developers are non-flammable but require high-pH waste neutralization. Compared with a standard technical-grade solvent developer, the Electronic/EL Grade reduces trace metals from typical technical-grade levels of 1–10 ppm down to the sub-100 ppb range for critical cations, and reduces particles larger than 0.5 µm from more than 100 counts/mL to ≤ 25 counts/mL. The difference is critical for processes where post-develop residues remain on the wafer and later enter etch or deposition chambers. Closed-cup flash point is evaluated by ASTM D56-22; production lots outside the 25–45 °C interval are rejected.
| Comparison dimension | Negative PR Developer & Rinse Electronic/EL Grade | Aqueous TMAH positive-resist developer | Standard solvent grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer type | Organic solvent blend | Aqueous alkaline | Organic solvent blend |
| Removal target | Unexposed negative-tone resist | Exposed positive-tone resist | Unexposed negative-tone resist |
| pH at 25 °C | Neutral organic blend; not directly comparable to aqueous pH | 13–14 | Neutral organic blend |
| Total trace metals | ≤ 500 ppb | ≤ 500 ppb depending on electronic grade | 1–10 ppm typical |
| Particles ≥ 0.5 µm | ≤ 25 counts/mL | ≤ 25 counts/mL | > 100 counts/mL typical |
| Flammability | Flammable; closed-cup flash point 25–45 °C | Non-flammable | Flammable; closed-cup flash point 25–45 °C |
| Aluminium compatibility | Low attack potential | Etch rate may exceed 10 nm/min depending on temperature | Moderate; depends on water content |
| Rinse requirement | Matched low-residue solvent rinse required | DI water rinse | Technical solvent rinse; higher NVR potential |
When a solvent-based negative developer replaces aqueous TMAH chemistry in a production line, the conversion is not a drop-in substitution. Waste-drain plumbing must be separated from aqueous waste streams because the solvent blend can attack elastomeric seals and PVC piping not rated for organic solvents. Exhaust volume must be increased to maintain the lower flammable limit below 10 %; the safety data sheet and NFPA 30 specify the minimum air-change rate. Dispense pumps must be constructed of stainless steel or PTFE wetted parts, and plastic tubing must be fluoropolymer. EPDM and NBR seals have high volume swell in aromatic and ketone-containing solvent blends; Kalrez or PTFE-encapsulated seals are preferred. The developer should not be blended with TMAH-based developers or amine strippers; mixing may generate immiscible phases, precipitates, or localized heating. Amine-based additives should not be introduced into the developer or rinse because trace amines can neutralize acid-catalyzed resists and produce footing in negative-tone chemically amplified systems. If the previous positive-resist developer used a surfactant package, the wet station must be rinsed with the new solvent system to prevent surfactant carryover from changing the negative-resist wetting angle.
Storage and dispensing boundaries follow the safety data sheet and the local fire code. Store between 15 °C and 25 °C in a flammable-liquid cabinet with nitrogen blanketing. Maximum unopened shelf life is 12 months from date of manufacture when stored away from direct sunlight. Do not allow the developer to remain in open bowls for more than one shift because atmospheric moisture absorption shifts water content and can alter dissolution rate. The product is not compatible with strong oxidizers such as concentrated nitric acid or hydrogen peroxide; mixing may be exothermic. Waste disposal must comply with local regulations for organic solvent waste. Empty containers retain flammable vapour and should be grounded during transfer. For high-volume production, closed-loop filtration skids with 0.05 µm final filters and online particle counters are recommended to maintain the EL-grade particle level at point of use.
