Directed Block Copolymer Assembly for High-Density Lithography
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current nanoscale device fabrication techniques, such as optical lithography, face limitations in creating dense periodic patterns at scales below 30 nanometers due to high costs and technological impasses, necessitating new methods for patterning substrates with high density and precision.
Innovation Solution
The use of self-assembling block copolymer materials in combination with top-down patterning tools to enhance pattern feature size, shape, and uniformity, increasing feature density and improving registration by depositing a block copolymer film on a chemically patterned substrate, allowing it to self-assemble and form high-density nanostructures.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If optical lithography is used to pattern substrates, then pattern features can be created, but manufacturing cost increases and technological impasses occur at scales below 30 nanometers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the patterning process into two distinct stages: (1) top-down lithographic patterning to create initial low-density patterns, and (2) bottom-up self-assembly of block copolymers to generate final high-density patterns. This segmentation allows each method to operate in its optimal regime, avoiding the cost and technical limitations of using lithography alone for high-density patterning
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces block copolymer materials as an intermediary between the lithographically patterned substrate and the final desired pattern. The block copolymers self-assemble into micellar structures that serve as templates for the final high-density pattern, mediating the transition from low-density lithographic patterns to high-density final patterns
2Manufacturing precision
If optical lithography is used to pattern substrates, then pattern features can be created, but technological impasses occur at length scales below 30 nanometers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs self-service by utilizing the intrinsic self-assembly capability of block copolymers. The block copolymers spontaneously organize into ordered micellar structures without requiring external guidance or control, leveraging their own thermodynamic driving forces to achieve the desired high-density patterning at scales below 30 nanometers
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical and chemical parameters of the system by introducing block copolymer materials with specific properties (block composition, molecular weight, solvent compatibility) that enable self-assembly at desired length scales. This parameter change allows access to nanoscale dimensions that are inaccessible to conventional lithography
3Manufacturing precision
If block copolymer self-assembly is used to increase feature density, then feature density and pattern perfection improve, but process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by first creating lithographic patterns that serve as templates or guides for subsequent block copolymer self-assembly. These pre-formed patterns provide nucleation sites and spatial guidance that direct the self-assembly process, ensuring that the final high-density pattern maintains registration with the underlying substrate while reducing the complexity of controlling self-assembly from scratch
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables the creation of high-density, high-quality nanostructures with improved feature placement and uniformity, overcoming the limitations of traditional lithographic methods by increasing feature density and pattern perfection, suitable for applications like magnetic recording and nanolithographic templates.
Implementation Method 1
allowing the block copolymer to self-assemble in the presence of the chemically patterned substrate, thereby producing a pattern in the block copolymer film
Implementation Method 2
the features of the second pattern are defined by microphase-separated domains of the block copolymer material
Implementation Method 3
depositing a block copolymer film on the chemically patterned substrate
Data Source
AI summary
Methods to pattern substrates with dense periodic nanostructures that combine top-down lithographic tools and self-assembling block copolymer materials are provided. According to various embodiments, the methods involve chemically patterning a substrate, depositing a block copolymer film on the chemically patterned imaging layer, and allowing the block copolymer to self-assemble in the presence of the chemically patterned substrate, thereby producing a pattern in the block copolymer film that is improved over the substrate pattern in terms feature size, shape, and uniformity, as well as regular spacing between arrays of features and between the features within each array compared to the substrate pattern. In certain embodiments, the density and total number of pattern features in the block copolymer film is also increased. High density and quality nanoimprint templates and other nanopatterned structures are also provided.