Spin-coating on nanoscale topography and phase separation of diblock copolymers

Abstract

CRANN researchers are interested in mathematical modelling of all aspects of the process of spin-coating of diblock copolymers, with the aim of removing expensive trial and error design cycles. Of particular interest is the flow of the polymer during spin-coating, and also during the subsequent annealing process.

Also of considerable interest is the chemical process of phase-separation and self-assembly of the diblock copolymer. Existing models in the literature rely heavily on computationally expensive Monte-Carlo simulation methods.

The modelling work performed during the study group in summarized in this report. The report is split into four main sections, with discussion and suggestions for experiments in the concluding section. The content of the sections is as follows:

Section 0.2: Mathematical modelling of spin-coating onto a flat substrate; no annealing considered.
Section 0.3: Modelling of spin-coating onto a substrate with topography (i.e. trenches); no annealing considered.
Section 0.4: Flow of polymer during annealing.
Section 0.5: Models for self-assembly of polymers into nanostructures.

Sections 0.2 to 0.4 are focussed on the fluid flow problems for the polymer, and go some way to providing useful answers to Problem 1. On the other hand, Problem 2 was found to be extremely challenging, and the efforts described in section 0.5 represent only a relatively modest impact on this problem.