Peter Trefonas

Peter Trefonas (born 1958) is a retired DuPont Fellow (a senior scientist) at DuPont, where he had worked on the development of electronic materials. He is known for innovations in the chemistry of photolithography, particularly the development of anti-reflective coatings and polymer photoresists that are used to create circuitry for computer chips. This work has supported the patterning of smaller features during the lithographic process, increasing miniaturization and microprocessor speed.

Education Peter Trefonas is a son of Louis Marco Trefonas, also a chemist, and Gail Thames. He was inspired by Star Trek and the writings of Isaac Asimov, and created his own chemistry lab at home. Trefonas also wrote a game based on Dungeons & Dragons.

Trefonas studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Robert West,

Career Trefonas joined MEMC Electronic Materials in late 1984. In 1986, he and others co-founded Aspect Systems Inc., utilizing photolithography technology acquired from MEMC.

Trefonas has published at least 137 journal articles and technical publications. He has received 132 US patents.

In 1989, Trefonas and others at Aspect Systems Inc. reported on extensive studies of polyfunctional photosensitive groups in positive photoresists. They studied diazonaphthoquinone (DNQ), a chemical compound used for dissolution inhibition of novolak resin in photomask creation. They mathematically modeled effects, predicted possible optimizations, and experimentally verified their predictions. They found that chemically bonding together three of the molecules of DNQ to create a new molecule containing three dissolution inhibitors in a single molecule, led to a better feature contrast, with better resolution and miniaturization. These modified DNQs became known as "polyfunctional photoactive components" (PACs). This approach, which they termed polyphotolysis,

has also been referred to as the "Trefonas Effect." The technology of trifunctional diazonaphthoquinone PACs has become the industry standard in positive photoresists.

Trefonas has also been a leader in the development of fast etch organic Bottom Antireflective Coating (BARC)

In 2014, Trefonas and others at Dow were named Heroes of Chemistry by the American Chemical Society, for the development of Fast Etch Organic Bottom Antireflective Coatings (BARCs). 2018, named Fellow of the SPIE 2016, Perkin Medal, from the Society of Chemical Industry 2014, ACS Heroes of Chemistry, from the American Chemical Society (one of thirteen scientists from the Dow Chemical Company credited with the development of Dow AR Fast Etch Organic Bottom Antireflectant Coatings) 2013, SPIE C. Grant Willson Best Paper Award in Patterning Materials and Processes jointly with researchers at Dow and Texas A&M University, from SPIE for the paper "Bottom-up / top-down high-resolution, high-throughput lithography using vertically assembled block brush polymers".