Acid generators, sulfonic acids, sulfonyl halides, and radiation sensitive resin compositions

摘要

The invention provides novel acid generators which are unproblematic in combustibility and accumulation inside the human body and can generate acids having high acidities and high boiling points and exhibiting properly short diffusion lengths in resist coating films and which permit the formation of resist patterns excellent smoothness with little dependence on the denseness of a mask pattern; sulfonic acids generated from the acid generators; sulfonyl halides useful as raw material in the synthesis of the acid generators; and radiation-sensitive resin compositions containing the acid generators. The acid generators have structures represented by the general formula (I), wherein R1 is a monovalent substituent such as alkoxycarbonyl, alkylsulfonyl, or alkoxysulfonyl; R2 to R4 are each hydrogen or alkyl; k is an integer of 0 or above; and n is an integer of 0 to 5. Among the radiation-sensitive resin compositions, a positive one contains a resin having acid-dissociable groups in addition to the above acid generator, while a negative one contains an alkali-soluble resin and a crosslinking agent in addition to the acid generator.