Semiconductors Get Smaller with 'Nano Mosaic' Technology

Electron microscope image of a substrate surface coated with nano mosaic.

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] A technology that allows easy drawing of nano-sized fine circuits on circuit boards has been developed. It is expected to contribute to the miniaturization of semiconductor devices. The research team led by Professor Soyeon Kim of the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) announced on the 23rd that they developed a block copolymer pattern control technology using nano mosaic coating, and the related research results were published in ACS Nano, an international journal in the field of nanotechnology.

Block Copolymer Pattern Control Using Nano Mosaic Technology

The research team succeeded in obtaining block copolymer nano patterns by precisely and delicately controlling the interface of block copolymer thin films through the 'nano mosaic' coating technology.

When a few drops of polymer solution are dropped onto the water surface, a dense dot pattern called a nano mosaic is formed. By placing the block copolymer on this formed nano mosaic, it is possible to obtain nano patterns of desired shapes. The nano mosaic film (coating) between the block copolymer and the substrate acts as a controller that adjusts the interfacial energy. The size of the interfacial energy can be easily controlled depending on how densely the nano mosaic spacing is made.

Block copolymers are polymer materials that can self-assemble into specific patterns with a thickness one hundred thousandth that of a human hair, enabling precise control of nano-sized patterns.

This technology can be used to develop smaller semiconductor microdevices. Microdevices are manufactured using lithography processes that draw circuits on substrates using strong light. To create higher-performance electronic devices, semiconductor sizes must become smaller and circuit widths narrower. However, with current technology, it is difficult to implement circuits below 10 nanometers in width. Moreover, the process is costly and involves the use of various chemical substances.

Contribution to Miniaturization of Semiconductor Devices

Donghyup Kim, the first author and a researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UNIST, explained, "The nano mosaic is permanently (irreversibly) coated simply by passing the substrate to be patterned through the water surface where the polymer solution has been dropped," adding, "Coating is possible regardless of the type and shape of the substrate."

The research team succeeded in nano patterning block copolymers by coating nano mosaics on 16 types of substrates, including silicon substrates, indium tin oxide, and molybdenum substrates. They also applied nano mosaic coatings to substrates with fine pyramid or cylindrical shapes, enabling three-dimensional nano patterning.

Professor Soyeon Kim stated, "Block copolymer nano patterning has attracted attention as a next-generation lithography method but had the limitation of requiring precise interfacial control. However, we succeeded in controlling the interface of block copolymer thin films using a simple method called nano mosaic coating," and added, "Nano mosaic coating is much simpler than existing polymer thin film interface control methods, making large-area industrialization easy, and it is expected to be applicable to interfacial control in various systems in the future."

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