Chemical and physical methods of the templated direction of block copolymers

Abstract

This thesis discusses the investigation of various aspects of templated self-assembly of block copolymer (BCP) thin films for nanofeature fabrication. Two chapters outline the research of a combined physical and chemical templating method with two BCPs. The method was not effective in templating poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) BCP because of limited template wettability. The method effectively templated poly(octofluro pentamethacrylate-block-hydroxystyrene) (OFPMA-b-HSM) BCP to fabricate orthogonally-directed lamellar microdomains and nanohole-mesh arrays. Chapter 4 discusses the achievement of a mean overlay accuracy of 52 nm and 0' for two electron-beam-based lithographic features as a result of an investigated overlay process. Lastly, the thesis reports the fabrication of a wide-range of nanofeatures - from two-dimensional and three dimensional nanoholes arrays to elliptical and cylindrical meshes - by the sacrificial-post templating method with poly(styreneblock- dimethylsiloxane) (PS-b-PDMS) BCP.