University Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA/LETI Minatec, Laboratoire des Technologies de la Microélectronique (LTM), 38000, Grenoble, France
After a PhD at the CEA-IRIG in Grenoble on SOI photonic crystals, Marc Zelsmann worked in Ireland, at the Tyndall National Institute, on the development of nanoimprint lithography applied to optics. Since 2006, he has been a CNRS research fellow at the University of Grenoble Alpes at the Laboratoire des Technologies de la Microélectronqiue (LTM, located inside the CEA-LETI-Minatec facilities). He works on alternative lithographies for microelectronics (UV-assisted nanoimprint lithography and self-assembly of block copolymers). He is responsible for the contribution of LTM to several European and French projects and is the coordinator of a French project dedicated to the study of the interrelation between the self-assembly and the stability of block copolymer thin films. He is also involved in technological developments in the LTM “Micro and Nanotechnologies for Health, Energy and Environment” team. He has published more than 80 scientific articles and 13 patents.
The directed self-assembly (DSA) of block copolymers (BCPs) is a very promising lithography technique, both in microelectronics and outside microelectronics, in terms of resolution and low cost. It is based on the natural self-assembly of copolymers consisting of at least two distinct blocks. Yet, with the advent of highly incompatible (high-c) BCP systems, needed for sub-10 nm resolution, interface manipulations by substrate processing and use of top-coats have become critical to obtain well-ordered and usable nanostructures. At LTM, we are working on the integration of high-c silicon-containing BCP systems with advanced photo-lithography substrates.1 For example, we recently demonstrated the well-controlled directed self-assembly of a 9 nm resolution lamellar block copolymer into anisotropically plasma-treated spin-on-carbon (SOC) trenches. We also showed that it is possible to use this type of lithography for the fabrication of graphene nanoribbons, made semiconductor thanks to their small lateral dimension (~9 nm).2 Moreover, thanks to the development of dedicated functional top-coats, we proposed original integration schemes allowing for example the local choice of the orientation of the nano-phases or the stacking of several layers of BCPs.3Finally, the expertise of the laboratory in plasma etching could be used to achieve state-of-the-art transfer results in various substrates.4
On a more fundamental aspect, the mechanisms driving the interactions between the self-assembly of the BCP and the wetting of the polymer thin film are still little studied,5 even though a fundamental understanding of these mechanisms is crucial both for the control of the (thermo)dynamic stability of the films or to produce more advanced nano-architectures based for example on local modifications of wetting.