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Focused solar annealing for block copolymer fast self-assembly.

ABSTRACT: Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly has tremendous potential applications in next-generation nanolithography. It offers significant advantages, including high resolution and cost-effectiveness, effectively overcoming the limitations associated with conventional optical lithography. In this work, we demonstrate a focused solar annealing (FSA) technique that is facile, eco-friendly, and energy-efficient for fast self-assembly of polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) thin films. The FSA principle involves utilizing a common biconvex lens to converge incident solar radiation into a high-temperature spot, which is directly used to drive the microphase separation of PS-b-PMMA thin films. As a result, PS-b-PMMA undergoes self-assembly, forming ordered nanostructures in a vertical orientation at seconds timescales on silicon substrates with a neutral layer. In addition, the FSA technique can be employed for grafting neutral polymer brushes onto the silicon substrate. Furthermore, the FSA's compatibility with graphoepitaxy-directed self-assembly (DSA) of BCP is also demonstrated in the patterning of contact holes. The results of contact hole shrinking show that contact hole prepatterns of ∼60.4 nm could be uniformly shrunk to ∼20.5 nm DSA hole patterns with a hole open yield (HOY) of 100 %. For contact hole multiplication, doublet DSA holes were successfully generated on elliptical templates, revealing an average DSA hole size of ∼21.3 nm. Most importantly, due to the direct use of solar energy, the FSA technique provides many significant advantages such as simplicity, environmental friendliness, solvent-free, low cost, and net-zero carbon emissions, and will open up a new direction for BCP lithography that is sustainable, pollution-free, and carbon-neutral.

SUBMITTER: Hu XH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10825308 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Focused solar annealing for block copolymer fast self-assembly.

Hu Xiao-Hua XH Zhang Rui R Zhang Xiaohui X Wu Zhiyong Z Zhou Jing J Li Weihua W Xiong Shisheng S

Heliyon 20240105 2

Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly has tremendous potential applications in next-generation nanolithography. It offers significant advantages, including high resolution and cost-effectiveness, effectively overcoming the limitations associated with conventional optical lithography. In this work, we demonstrate a focused solar annealing (FSA) technique that is facile, eco-friendly, and energy-efficient for fast self-assembly of polystyrene-<i>block</i>-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-<i>b</i>-PMMA) ...[more]

PMID: 38293481

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Project description:The self-assembly of ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) block copolymers (BCPs) remains a complex and time-consuming endeavor owing to the high kinetic penalties associated with long polymer chain entanglement. In this work, we report a unique strategy of overcoming these kinetic barriers through precision solvent annealing of an UHMW polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) BCP system (M w: ∼800 kg/mol) by fast swelling to very high levels of solvent concentration (ϕs). Phase separation on timescales of ∼10 min is demonstrated once a thickness-dependent threshold ϕs value of ∼0.80-0.86 is achieved, resulting in lamellar feature spacings of over 190 nm. The threshold ϕs value was found to be greater for films with higher dry thickness (D 0) values. Tunability of the domain morphology is achieved through controlled variation of both D 0 and ϕs, with the kinetically unstable hexagonal perforated lamellar (HPL) phase observed at ϕs values of ∼0.67 and D 0 values of 59-110 nm. This HPL phase can be controllably induced into an order-order transition to a lamellar morphology upon further increase of ϕs to 0.80 or above. As confirmed by grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering, the lateral ordering of the lamellar domains is shown to improve with increasing ϕs up to a maximum value at which the films transition to a disordered state. Thicker films are shown to possess a higher maximum ϕs value before transitioning to a disordered state. The swelling rate is shown to moderately influence the lateral ordering of the phase-separated structures, while the amount of hold time at a particular value of ϕs does not notably enhance the phase separation process. These large period self-assembled lamellar domains are then employed to facilitate pattern transfer using a liquid-phase infiltration method, followed by plasma etching, generating ordered, high aspect ratio Si nanowall structures with spacings of ∼190 nm and heights of up to ∼500 nm. This work underpins the feasibility of a room-temperature, solvent-based annealing approach for the reliable and scalable fabrication of sub-wavelength nanostructures via BCP lithography.

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Focused solar annealing for block copolymer fast self-assembly.

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Focused solar annealing for block copolymer fast self-assembly.

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