Nanopatterning with conformable phase masks

This paper describes an approach for using conventional photoresist materials to pattern structures with dimensions as small as 50 nm. This method, known as near field phase shift lithography (NFPSL), is an experimentally simple approach to nanofabrication that relies on ultraviolet exposure of a layer of resist while it is in conformal, atomic scale contact with such an elastomeric phase mask. This paper presents some representative structures produced with this method; it illustrates an example of its use in patterning the critical dimensions of organic transistors; and it outlines some new modeling results of the optics associated with this technique. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.