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Title: Ionic Liquids as Additives to Polystyrene-Block-Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Enabling Directed Self-Assembly of Patterns with Sub-10 nm Features

Journal Article · · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [5];  [5];  [4];  [2]; ORCiD logo [6]
  1. Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States; IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, Leuven B-3001, Belgium
  2. Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States
  3. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, 5 Xin Mo Fan Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China
  4. IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, Leuven B-3001, Belgium
  5. Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, 1590 Tabata, Samukawa-Machi, Koza-Gun, Kanagawa 253-0114, Japan
  6. Institute for Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States; Material Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois 60439, United States

Polystyrene-block-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) is one of the prototypical block copolymers in directed self-assembly (DSA) research and development, with standardized protocols in place for processing on industrially relevant 300 mm wafers. Scaling of DSA patterns to pitches below 20 nm using PS-b-PMMA, however, is hindered by the relatively low Flory–Huggins interaction parameter, $$χ$$. In this work, we investigate the approach of adding small amounts of ionic liquids (ILs) into PS-b-PMMA, which selectively segregates into the PMMA domain and effectively increases the $$χ$$ parameter and thus the pattern resolution. The amount of IL additive is small enough to result in limited changes in PS-b-PMMA’s surface and interfacial properties, thus maintaining industry-friendly processing by thermal annealing with a free surface. Three different ILs are studied comparatively regarding their compositional process window, capability of increasing $$χ$$, and thermal stability. By adding ~3.1 vol % of the champion IL into a low-molecular-weight PS-b-PMMA (Mn = 10.3k-b-9.5k), we demonstrated DSA on chemically patterned substrates of lamellar structures with feature sizes <8.5 nm. Compatibility of the PS-b-PMMMA/IL blends with the standardized processes that have been previously developed suggests that such blend materials could provide a drop-in solution for sub-10 nm lithography with the processing advantages of PS-b-PMMA.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1462713
Journal Information:
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 19; ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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