(361a) High Chi Block Copolymers and Photopatternable Interfaces for Controlling Thin Film Structure (Invited Talk)

Block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly is showing great promise for enhancing the resolution of established, high-throughput photolithography techniques. This methodology has the potential to broadly impact device capabilities from magnetic data storage media to semiconductors. However, most device architectures possess the requirement that self-assembled BCP domains be confined only to prescribed areas. For example, templates for manufacturing magnetic storage media should contain regions with high density features for storing bits of data and, additionally, regions without any features. BCPs can self-assemble into features appropriate in size and density for data storage, but it is difficult to prescribe that features only appear in specific regions. We have recently developed a strategy to address this issue by demonstrating alignment layers (top and bottom adjoining layers to the BCP film) that have photoswitchable wetting characteristics for area selected control of BCP domain orientations. In this talk, several high-chi block copolymers capable of sub-10 nm patterning and their thin film self-assembly characteristics with these alignment layers will be highlighted.