Combining advanced lithographic techniques and self-assembly of thin films of diblock copolymers to produce templates for nanofabrication

A technique to create templates for nanofabrication using thin films of diblock copolymers is discussed and demonstrated. Advanced lithographic techniques an used to create chemically patterned surfaces that manipulate the wetting behavior of diblock copolymer films and to guide the spatial microphase separation of the block copolymer domains. Guided microphase separation has great potential for application of block copolymer films in nanofabrication because of perpendicular orientation of the domains to the substrate and macroscopic perfection in the ordering of copolymer domains. Lithography allows for registration of the domains with the substrate for creating addressable arrays. Experimental implementation of the technique is demonstrated using extreme ultraviolet interferometric lithography, self-assembled monolayers of octadecyltrichlorosilane as imaging layers, and the self-assembly of films of symmetric poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate). (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(00)00306-1].