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

Chen, Xuanxuan; Zhou, Chun; Chen, Shuang-Jun; Craig, Gordon S.  W.; Rincon-Delgadillo, Paulina; Dazai, Takahiro; Miyagi, Ken; Maehashi, Takaya; Yamazaki, Akiyoshi; Gronheid, Roel; Stoykovich, Mark P.; Nealey, Paul F.

doi:10.1021/acsami.8b02990

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

Journal Article · 18 April 2018 · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.8b02990 · OSTI ID:1479023

^[1]; Zhou, Chun ^[2]; Chen, Shuang-Jun ^[3]; Craig, Gordon S. W. ^[2]; Rincon-Delgadillo, Paulina ^[4]; Dazai, Takahiro ^[5]; Miyagi, Ken ^[5]; Maehashi, Takaya ^[5]; Yamazaki, Akiyoshi ^[5]; Gronheid, Roel ^[4]; Stoykovich, Mark P. ^[2];

^[6]

Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), Leuven (Belgium)
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
Nanjing Univ. of Technology (China)
Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC), Leuven (Belgium)
Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, Kanagawa (Japan)
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (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 (M_n = 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.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1479023

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 10, Issue 19; ISSN 1944-8244

Publisher:: American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: ENGLISH

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Cited by: 28 works

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