Photoresist Processing Trouble-Shooting Etchants and Solvents
Photoresists Ancillaries Storage/Handling/Ageing Substrate Pre-Treatment and Coating Baking Steps Exposure Development Coating and Lift-off Etching and Stripping
Softbake (Prebake) Post Exposure Bake (PEB) Image Reversal Bake Hardbake
In case of image reversal resists, this baking step makes the resist areas exposure in the 1st exposure inert in the developer, while the areas unexposed remain photo-active.

This baking step is very temperature-critical, since the temperatures hereby typically applied cause the thermal induced decomposition of a significant amount of the photo active compound thus reducing the development rate.

For reproducible results, we strongly recommend using a hotplate instead of an oven, and an image reversal bake temperature just so high to keep the dark erosion during development sufficiently low.
Weiterführendes Dokument (pdf) Literature: Image Reversal Resist Processing Weiterführendes Dokument (pdf) Literature: Baking of Resist Films
MicroChemicals® - All you need for microstructuring with short lead times also in small sales volumes:

Photoresists (positive, negative, image reversal, thin and thick resists, spray resists, protective coating ...)
Ancillaries ( developers, thinner, adhesion promoter such as HMDS, remover)
Etchants (acids and the ready-to-use etching mixtures aluminium etch, chromium etch, gold etch und silicon etch)
Solvents (acetone, isopropyl alcohol, MEK ... in VLSI and ULSI quality)