Block Copolymer Lithography
Material Measurement Laboratory, Materials Science and Engineering Division
NIST only participates in the February and August reviews.
Conventional optical-based photolithography is reaching the limits of scaling for the patterning and fabrication of nanoscale devices. The semiconductor industry requires increased patterning resolution to continue shrink device dimensions and follow Moore’s law. Block copolymer lithography provides a potential avenue for increasing the resolution of current photolithography methods. The self-assembly of the block copolymer is directed by a template patterned by conventional lithographic methods. The block copolymer structure within the pattern template can amplify the resolution of the original pattern. Lamellae forming block copolymers can reduce the size of line patterns, while cylinder forming block copolymers can be used for fabrication of bit-patterned media for next generation magnetic data storage. Research projects will include using X ray and neutron scattering to characterize the fidelity of the block copolymer structure to the template and computer simulations of the underlying polymer physics that direct the self-assembly.