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Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of California at Berkeley have recently developed novel methods to produce block copolymer thin films containing near perfectly ordered arrays of nanoscopic elements on macroscopic non-flexible or flexible substrates. The long-range lateral order of the block copolymer nanoscopic elements is achieved by using substrates with saw-tooth patterns to guide the copolymer self-assembly. The block copolymer thin films produced using saw-tooth patterned substrates have areal densities of nanocylinders in excess of 10 terabits per square inch, and can be easily processed to generate templates with long-range lateral order of nanopores for a wide variety of commercial applications

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed simple and environmentally friendly methods for fabricating nanopatterned templates and substrates with highly oriented and ordered nanodomains or nanostructures. Metal-coated block copolymer films with highly ordered nanoscale cylindrical pores oriented normal to the film surface can be fabricated by using simple solvent vapor annealing, film reconstruction, and glancing angle metal evaporation processes. By controlling the thickness of the metal layer and the thermal annealing conditions, two other types of metal-decorated, nanopatterned films with nanodots or nanoring-shaped voids can be generated. These metal-decorated films can be used as masks or templates for subsequent pattern transfer into underlying substrates with high fidelity via etching, or as scaffolds for the fabrication of arrays of nanoscopic elements from any material that can be evaporated, sputtered or electrochemically deposited into the voids of the nanopatterned films.

Researchers at UMass Amherst, UC Berkeley and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have collaboratively developed a simple, robust route for producing unidirectionally aligned, nanoscopic line patterns of block copolymers over arbitrarily large areas, with an order parameter in excess of 0.97. The fabrication process combines the “bottom-up,” directed self-assembly of block copolymer approach to generation of nanoscopic surface structures with a unique strategy to guide perfect assembly of horizontally positioned nanocylindrical domains of block copolymers on non-defect-free substrates. In addition, the fabrication process does not require photolithography, e-beam lithography, or other processes employing a “top-down” patterning approach. The exceptional alignment is attainable either on reconstructed, faceted single crystal surfaces or on their replicas made with flexible, inexpensive polymeric materials. The block copolymer line patterns with perfect structural order over arbitrarily large areas can be used in subsequent roll-to-roll type pattern transfer and patterning processes and to serve as templates and scaffolds for the manufacture of a variety of addressable media and devices.