Moore’s law for the continuously shrinking production scale of features in microelectronic devices is  reaching an end, because of challenges in using small wavelength radiation in photolithography. One approach to circumvent this limit is the use of block copolymers (BCPs)  that can form very small features that depend on the self-assembly of lamellar phases and not on radiation. Photolithography can be used to form guiding stripes, and smaller features are produced by coating such BCPs  on the guiding stripes in a process known as directed self-assembly (DSA). We have developed a coarse-grain simulation model to study DSA and how various properties affect the performance of these BCPs in producing these lamellar features. This simulation model has been used extensively to predict how various changes in structure of the BCP affect the process performance. While fundamental properties were analyzed in these simulations, properties of industrial relevance to the microelectronics industry were also examined. BCP structural and processing variables of industrial relevance included BCP polydispersity, multiblock distribution, homopolymer additives, underlayer chemistry, quiding stripe geometry, and guiding stripe processing. The dependent properties predicted as a function of these structural and processing properties include viable process windows, line edge roughness, line width roughness, and the formation and annealing behavior of lamellar defects.<br/>

Simulation of structure/property relationships in block copolymer photoresists for directed self-assembly

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.