Carbohydrate-Based Block Copolymer Thin Films: Ultrafast Nano-Organization with 7 nm Resolution Using Microwave Energy

Block copolymers (BCP) can self-assemble into nanoscale patterns with a wide variety of applications in the semiconductor industry. The self-assembly of BCPs is commonly accomplished by solvent vapor or thermal annealing, but generally these methods require long time (few hours) to obtain nanostructured thin films. In this contribution, a new and ultrafast method (using microwaves) is proposed—high temperature solvent vapor annealing (HTSVA), combining solvent vapor annealing with thermal annealing, to achieve fast and controllable self-assembly of amphiphilic BCP thin films. A promising carbohydrate-based BCP capable of forming cylindrical patterns with some of the smallest feature sizes is used for demonstrating how to obtain a highly ordered vertical cylindrical pattern with sub-10 nm feature sizes in few seconds by HTSVA. HTSVA provides not only a simple way to achieve BCP fast self-assembly in practical applications but also a tool to study the self-assembly behavior of BCPs under extreme conditions.

As opposed to solvent or thermal annealing processes (taking few hours), ultrafast (1 s) self-assembly of high-χ carbohydrate-based block copolymers thin films leading to nanoscale patterns (sub-10 nm perpendicular or horizontal cylinders) is achieved using microwave energy. Such a new technological approach is of great interest for a wide variety of applications in the semiconductor industry.

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