CONTEXT

Today, the efforts toward developing nanometer scale fabrication methods could be split into two fields. One field seeks to extend the current planar, deposit-pattern-etch paradigm used for complementary metal oxide semiconductors (CMOS). The other seeks new techniques to assemble structures without handling individual particles: self-assembly.

Diblock copolymers are a promising class of materials that self-assemble to form ordered nanostructures. These structures include spheres, cylinders, lamellae, hexagonally ordered cylinders, biscontinuous cubic gyroids whose shape and dimensions depend on the molecular weight and composition of the polymer. Diblock copolymer lithography refers to the use of these nanostructures in thin films as templates.

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

Thin films of rigid-flexible saccharidic diblock copolymers developped by the CERMAV can self-assemble into ordered periodic structures at the molecular period of 10nm (density>1012objects/cm2). They can be used as templates to fabricate NAND flash, memory quantum dots, nanowires, magnetic storage media and nanopores. They are of tremendous interest for the nanofabrication of sub-22 nm ordered structures, such lithographic templates for patterning applications, and complex, three dimensional structures. They self-assemble to form dense arrays of nanostructures with dimensions and spacing that are difficult or impossible to achieve by other means or are prohibitively expensive to fabricate using conventional lithographic materials and processes, membranes with dense arrays of pores, lithographic templates for patterning applications, and complex, three dimensional structures.

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