Design of solvent vapor annealing tool and study of kinetics of selfassembly of block copolymers for nano-lithography

Block copolymer lithography is a very promising candidate for nanoscale fabrication and is economically viable. It provides a high resolution, inexpensive, and straightforward approach to nano-size patterning. In this thesis, fundamental concepts and theories of block copolymer lithography are introduced. A well-controlled dynamic solvent vapor annealing chamber is built, and the best annealing condition using this chamber is investigated. Two changed parameters in this thesis are annealing time and initial film thickness. By using atomic force microscopy and other characterization methods, self-assembly structures of PS-b-P4VP films before and after solvent annealing with Tetrahydrofuran are studied. The best arrangement of hexagonally packed vertical cylinders is obtained after 60 min annealing with initial polymer film thickness around 50-57 nm and reaches its equilibrium pitch of 58 nm. This thesis also contains the study of the kinetics of the self-organization process of block copolymer films during annealing