| abstract |
It is an object of the present invention, whichnhas been made in view of the above-mentioned state ofnthe art, to provide a protolytically leaving group-containingncopolymer which can exhibit high levels ofnchanges in characteristics, such as solubility innalkaline aqueous solutions after free proton treatmentnas compared with the, solubility before such treatment,nand of substrate adhesion, developability, chemicalnresistance and etching resistance and which cannjudiciously be applied in various fields of application. n The present invention is related to anprotolytically leaving group-containing copolymer whichnis a copolymer having hydroxyl groups each bound to thenmain chain thereof via one carbon atom, aromatic rings,nand protolytically leaving groups, wherein saidnprotolytically leaving group-containing copolymernshowing an alkali dissolution rate of 20 × 10 -10 ton1,500 × 10 -10 m/second prior to protolytically leavingngroup elimination. |