Directed self-assembly of topcoat-free, integration-friendly high-x block copolymers

To extend scaling beyond poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) for directed self-assembly (DSA), high quality organic high-chi block copolymers (HC series) were developed and applied to implementation of sub-10 nm L/S DSA. Lamellae-forming block copolymers (BCPs) of the HC series showed the ability to form vertically oriented polymer domains conveniently with the in-house PS-r-PMMA underlayers (AZEMBLY (TM) EXP NLD series) without the use of an additional topcoat. The orientation control was achieved with low bake temperatures (<= 200 degrees C) and short bake times (<= 5 min). Also, these process-friendly materials are compatible with existing 193i-based graphoepitaxy and chemoepitaxy DSA schemes. In addition, it is notable that 8.5 nm organic lamellae domains were amenable to pattern development by simple dry etch techniques. These successful demonstrations of high-chi L/S DSA on 193i-defined guiding patterns and pattern development can offer a feasible route to access sub-10 nm node patterning technology.