Charles H. Wallace

Material readiness for generation 2 directed self-assembly (DSA) < 24nm pitch

The self-assembling behavior of thermally annealed PS-b-PMMA block copolymer derivatives (GEN2 BCPs) was evaluated using a substrate modified by a random copolymer, commonly called a ‘brush’. Similar to PS-b-PMMA, surface modification using the random copolymer brush served as an effective technique for controlling the domain orientation of the GEN2 BCP and yielded aligned features with pitches below 24nm. Non-preferential and weakly preferential random copolymers were also defined and applied to DSA using a graphoepitaxial approach. Finally, a Dry Development Rinse Process (DDRP)[1] was tested as a method to prevent pattern collapse and improve pattern transfer for GEN2 BCPs.