(576a) Quantitative Three-Dimensional Morphological Characterization of Block Copolymer Films Enabled By Directed Self-Assembly

DSA of block copolymer films on chemically nanopatterned surfaces is an emerging technology that is well-positioned for commercialization in nanolithography and nanomanufacturing. DSA of (PS-b-PMMA) films on lithographically defined chemically nanopatterned surfaces is one focus of our activities in which the main research objectives revolve around understanding the fundamental thermodynamics and kinetics that governs assembly, and therefore patterning properties such as 3D structure, perfection, and processing latitude. A second focus is to use the physical and chemical principles that we have elucidated for DSA of PS-b-PMMA towards the development of block copolymer systems capable of self-assembling into the sub 10 nm regime and continuing to meet the stringent constraints of manufacturing. The research is enabled by the recent development of techniques to combine metrology tools (TEM tomography, GISAXS, RSoXS), theoretically informed course grained models, and evolutionary algorithms to quantitatively determine and predict the independent process and material parameters that result in different 3D structures of assembled domains.