Resist composition and patterning process

1. A resist composition comprising:

100 parts by weights of a polymer serving as a base resin capable of increasing alkali solubility under the action of acid and comprising recurring units of at least one type selected from recurring units (a1) and (a2) having a carboxyl and/or phenolic hydroxyl group substituted with an acid labile group, as represented by the general formula (3), and recurring units having a phenolic hydroxyl group and/or lactone ring as an adhesive group and having a weight average molecular weight of 1,000 to 500,000,

wherein R 10 and R 12 are each independently hydrogen or methyl, R 11 and R 13 each are an acid labile group, Y 1 is a single bond, a C 1 -C 12 linking group having at least one of ester, lactone ring, phenylene and napthylene, a phenylene group or a naphthylene group, Y 2 is a single bond, ester group or amide group, subscripts a1 and a2 are numbers in the range: 0≦a1>0.9, 0≦a2≦0.9, and 0<a1+a2<1.0, and

0.1 to 20 parts by weight of a polymer, as a polymeric additive, comprising recurring units derived from a styrene having 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-propanol and recurring units (q2) derived from a monomer selected from a vinylnaphthalene, represented by the general formula (2):

wherein R 1 is hydrogen, hydroxyl, C 1 -C 10 straight, branched or cyclic alkyl, alkoxy, acyloxy, cyano, nitro, amino or halogen, m is 1 or 2, R 3 is hydrogen, C 1 -C 6 straight, branched or cyclic alkyl, alkoxy, acyl, acyloxy, alkoxycarbonyl, nitro, cyano, halogen, trifluoromethyl, or carboxyl, w is an integer of 1 to 7, p and q2 are numbers in the range: 0.3≦p<1.0, 0<q2<1.0, and 0.5≦p+q2≦1.0.

2. The resist composition of claim 1 which is a chemically amplified positive resist composition.

3. The resist composition of claim 1 wherein the polymer comprising recurring units of at least one type selected from recurring units (a1) and (a2) having a carboxyl and/or phenolic hydroxyl group substituted with an acid labile group, represented by the general formula (3), and recurring units having a phenolic hydroxyl group and/or lactone ring as an adhesive group has further copolymerized therein recurring units of at least one type selected from sulfonium salt units (b1) to (b3), as represented by the general formula (4),

wherein R 020 , R 024 and R 028 each are hydrogen or methyl, R 021 is a single bond, phenylene, —O—R 033 —, or —C(═O)—Y—R 033 —, Y is oxygen or NH, R 033 is a straight, branched or cyclic C 1 -C 6 alkylene group, alkenylene group or phenylene group, which may contain a carbonyl (—CO—), ester (—COO—), ether (—O—), or hydroxyl moiety, R 022 , R 023 , R 025 , R 026 , R 027 , R 029 , R 030 , and R 031 are each independently a straight, branched or cyclic C 1 -C 12 alkyl group which may contain a carbonyl, ester or ether moiety, a C 6 -C 12 aryl group, a C 7 -C 20 aralkyl group, or a thiophenyl group, Z 1 is a single bond, methylene, ethylene, phenylene, fluorinated phenylene, —O—R 032 —, or —C(═O)—Z 2 —R 032 —, Z 2 is oxygen or NH, R 032 is a straight, branched or cyclic C 1 -C 6 alkylene group, alkenylene group or phenylene group, which may contain a carbonyl, ester, ether or hydroxyl moiety, M − is a non-nucleophilic counter ion, subscripts b1, b2 and b3 are numbers in the range: 0≦b1>0.3, 0≦b2≦0.3, 0≦b3≦0.3, and 0<b1+b2+b3≦0.3.

4. The resist composition of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of an organic solvent, basic compound, dissolution regulator, and surfactant.

5. A pattern forming process comprising the steps of applying the resist composition of claim 1 onto a substrate to form a coating, baking, exposing the coating to high-energy radiation, and developing the exposed coating in a developer.

6. The process of claim 5 wherein the high-energy radiation is KrF excimer laser of wavelength 248 nm, ArF excimer laser of wavelength 193 nm, electron beam or soft x-ray of wavelength 3 to 15 nm.

7. The resist composition of claim 1 wherein in formula (2) R 3 is hydrogen.