https://nanyte.com/photoresists/kmpr-1025 · last updated 2026-09-28
- Manufacturer
- Kayaku Advanced Materials
- Tone
- negative
- Chemistry
- Epoxy (SU-8 type)
- Thickness
- 21.5–87 µm
- Developer
- 2.38 % TMAH (0.26 N) aqueous alkaline developer; SU-8 developer (solvent) may be used instead
- Applications
- High aspect ratio · MEMS structural · Electroplating / molding · Etch mask
Cross-checked — the spin curve (where published) and the single-value figures were read twice, independently, from the datasheet, with any disagreement settled against it.
- Substrate
- Resist
- Exposed
Spin coating
Data points
| Series | rpm | µm | Published dose |
|---|---|---|---|
| KMPR 1025 | 1000 | 87 | — |
| 2000 | 43 | 665–1055 mJ/cm² · 31–55 µm row | |
| 3000 | 29 | 500–645 mJ/cm² · 21–30 µm row 665–1055 mJ/cm² · 31–55 µm row within 10 % of a bracket edge | |
| 4000 | 22 | 500–645 mJ/cm² · 21–30 µm row within 10 % of a bracket edge |
Values are the manufacturer’s starting points, not a guarantee — characterize on your own tool. Series digitized from a published figure are approximate (±10 %).
Published dose is the datasheet’s own thickness bracket, quoted as printed — the full table and its citation are in the exposure section. A thickness the table does not cover shows nothing, and a thickness within 10 % of a bracket edge shows every bracket it could fall in.
read from figure — the filled-diamond trace legended KMPR 1025 on Figure 1, 'KMPR 1000 Thickness vs. Spin Speed', p.2, the second-highest of the five traces. Four plotted markers; no numeric table accompanies the chart.
- The steepest useful trace on the chart: 87 µm at 1000 rpm halves to 42.5 µm by 2000 rpm, then falls to 28.5 and 21.5 µm.
- Thickness is therefore very sensitive to speed at the slow end, and a target above about 60 µm is worth confirming on a test wafer rather than reading off the curve.
- Table 1 puts this grade at 64 % solids and 5200 cSt.
- The recommended program is a 500 rpm / 5-10 s spread at 100 rpm/s acceleration, then 30 s at the final speed at 300 rpm/s, dispensing 1 ml of resist per inch of substrate diameter.
- Adhesion
- HMDS not required — "Adhesion promoters are typically not required." For applications that require electroplating, the datasheet recommends pre-treating the substrate with HMDS Primer, and its Plating process lists HMDS as the first step.1
Soft bake
- Soft bake
- 100 °C (95–105 °C) · hotplate
- Notes
- 100 °C on a level hotplate, with 95-105 °C also usable. Convection ovens are advised against — a skin forms and traps solvent in the film. Time is thickness-binned and this grade spans three of those bins: 12 min for 21-30 µm, 15 min for 31-55 µm and 20 min for 56-80 µm. Above 80 µm the table stops, so the top of this grade's coating range has no published bake time. Bake, cool to room temperature, then return the wafer to the hotplate — visible wrinkling means it needs longer, and at these thicknesses that check is worth doing on every new target.
SOURCE: Soft Bake section and Table 2, p.2 of the KMPR 1000 datasheet (Ver. 6, December 2019)
Exposure dose
KMPR 1025's dose is published against film thickness, not as a single number. Read the row for the film you coat and run a dose array around it.
- As published
- Dose follows the coating rather than the grade, and across this grade's range that is a three-fold spread: 500-645 mJ/cm² at 21-30 µm rising to 1070-1465 mJ/cm² at 56-80 µm, with nothing published above 80 µm. Reflective substrates cost more again — the datasheet's multipliers are 1.5× on glass, Pyrex and ITO and 1.5-2× on gold, aluminium, copper, nickel and titanium against 1× on silicon, which matters here because plating work usually means a metal seed layer.
- Post-exposure bake
- 100 °C (95–105 °C) · hotplate
| Film thickness | Dose |
|---|---|
| 21–30 µm | 500–645 mJ/cm² |
| 31–55 µm | 665–1055 mJ/cm² |
| 56–80 µm | 1070–1465 mJ/cm² |
SOURCE: KMPR 1000 datasheet
Table 3 'Exposure Dose' of the KMPR 1000 datasheet (Ver. 6). The three bins carried here are the ones this grade's thickness range crosses; the table's top bin ends at 80 µm, below the 87 µm this grade reaches at 1000 rpm. The table is not attributed to a specific wavelength.
Development
- Developer
- 2.38 % TMAH (0.26 N) aqueous alkaline developer; SU-8 developer (solvent) may be used instead
- Method
- immersion, spray or spray-puddle
- Rinse
- After TMAH, spray rinse with de-ionized water for 20 s and blow dry with filtered air or nitrogen. After SU-8 developer, spray with fresh developer for about 10 s, then isopropyl alcohol for another 10 s, then blow dry — a white film during the IPA rinse means the film is under-developed and needs more developer.
- Developer family
- TMAH or solvent
Not published for this resist: Dilution, Time — characterize on-tool.
SOURCE: Development and Rinse and Dry sections with Tables 6 and 7, p.3-4 of the KMPR 1000 datasheet (Ver. 6, December 2019)
Hard bake, etch & strip
- Hard bake
- Not published — characterize on-tool
- Descum
- RIE, 2 min at 100 W with 10 sccm O2 at 100 mTorr — quoted as step 3 of the datasheet's plating sequence.
- Etch resistance
- "Excellent dry etch resistance" (Features, p.1); the series is positioned for DRIE work, and the datasheet's own example shows 10 µm features etched to 65 µm deep.
- Stripper
- Remover PG (NMP) at 80 °C for 10-20 min by immersion, provided the film was never hard baked — at this thickness expect the longer end, and ultrasound helps. Plasma removal where needed: RIE at 200 W with 80 sccm O2 and 8 sccm CF4, 100 mTorr, 10 °C.
- Storage
- Store frozen at -10 °C (14 °F) in tightly closed upright containers, away from light, heat, acids and ignition sources. Shelf life is thirteen months frozen, typically one to two months at room temperature. Defrost at room temperature for 24 h before use.
Where it's used
Practical notes from the datasheet
KMPR 1025 sits in the tens-of-microns band of Kayaku's chemically amplified epoxy negative series — thick enough for copper pillar moulds and deep etch masks, and the grade the datasheet's own plating example is built around. What changes at this thickness is that every process number stretches: the soft bake runs 12 to 20 minutes depending on where in the range you coat, the clearing dose spans 500 to 1465 mJ/cm², and TMAH development takes 6 to 8 minutes rather than the 3 a thin film needs. None of those are grade properties; they are thickness properties, and the datasheet tabulates them that way. Worth knowing before working at the thick end: the spin curve reaches 87 µm at 1000 rpm, but the soft-bake, dose and develop tables all stop at 80 µm, so the top of this grade's coating range has no published process at all and has to be characterised on-tool. Two other cautions carry weight here. Reflective substrates raise the dose by 1.5-2×, and plating work almost always means a metal seed layer, so a dose set on bare silicon will under-expose on copper. And hard baking is explicitly not recommended for plating resistance — an un-hard-baked film swells and lifts cleanly in Remover PG at 80 °C, while a baked one fights removal at exactly the thickness where removal is already slowest.
Grades in this family
Other grades in the KMPR 1000 series line differ mainly in coating thickness:
Troubleshooting
Common failure modes for KMPR 1025, answered from the manufacturer's datasheet and application notes. These are starting points — your substrate, tooling and environment shift the specifics, so calibrate on-tool.
I spun KMPR 1025 at 1000 rpm and got over 80 µm. Which bake and dose rows apply?
None directly. KMPR 1025 reaches roughly 87 µm at 1000 rpm on the Ver. 6 chart, but the soft-bake, exposure and develop tables stop at the 56–80 µm row (20 min soft bake at 100 °C, 1070–1465 mJ/cm², 8 min in 2.38 % TMAH or 4 min in SU-8 developer). Only the PEB rule is open-ended: 4 min at 100 °C at 50 µm and above. Beyond 80 µm, start from the 56–80 µm row and confirm with the wrinkle test and the latent-image check.
SOURCE: KMPR 1000 Technical Data Sheet
Kayaku KMPR 1000 Technical Data Sheet, Ver. 6, Dec 2019 — Figure 1 and Table 2, p.2; Tables 3 and 5, p.3; Tables 6–7, p.4
Thick KMPR 1025 still seems wet after soft bake. Is the bake long enough?
Check it against the thickness you actually coated: 12 min at 100 °C for 21–30 µm, 15 min for 31–55 µm and 20 min for 56–80 µm, on a level hotplate with good uniformity (95–105 °C is acceptable). Avoid convection ovens, where a skin can form and hold solvent in the film. Then verify: cool to room temperature, put the wafer back on the hotplate, and if it wrinkles keep baking a few more minutes, repeating until it no longer wrinkles.
SOURCE: Kayaku KMPR 1000 Technical Data Sheet, Ver. 6, Dec 2019 — Soft Bake, note and Table 2 Soft Bake Times, p.2
Should I develop KMPR 1025 in TMAH or SU-8 developer?
KMPR 1000 is designed for 2.38 % TMAH (0.26 N); SU-8 developer is a listed solvent alternative and is faster at this thickness. Across KMPR 1025's range the immersion times are 6 min (21–55 µm) to 8 min (56–80 µm) in TMAH, versus 2–4 min in SU-8 developer. The rinse must match: DI water for 20 s after TMAH, or fresh developer then IPA after SU-8 developer, where a white film means develop longer. Use strong agitation either way.
SOURCE: Kayaku KMPR 1000 Technical Data Sheet, Ver. 6, Dec 2019 — Development, p.3; Tables 6–7, Rinse and Dry and note, p.4
My thick KMPR 1025 shows no latent image during PEB. Too little dose, or too little bake?
Either, per the datasheet: no visible image during or after PEB means insufficient exposure, temperature or both. Check both against your thickness. Dose on silicon is 500–645 mJ/cm² at 21–30 µm, 665–1055 at 31–55 µm and 1070–1465 at 56–80 µm, higher on glass (1.5X) and metals (1.5–2X). PEB is at 100 °C directly after exposure: 2 min up to 25 µm, 3 min for 25–50 µm and 4 min from 50 µm up; the image should appear within the first minute.
SOURCE: Kayaku KMPR 1000 Technical Data Sheet, Ver. 6, Dec 2019 — Tables 3–4, Post Exposure Bake (PEB), note and Table 5, p.3
Sources & disclaimer
- Kayaku Advanced Materials — KMPR 1025 datasheet (Ver. 6, December 2019 (printed in the footer of every page)) · accessed 2026-09-10
- "Substrate Preparation", pp.1–2, and "Plating", p.4.
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 2026-09-28.