Nealey Group News

October 20, 2008
Professor Nealey featured in the October issue of Chemical & Engineering News [Link]
An exerpt:
Block copolymer lithography takes advantage of spontaneous self-assembly processes to create arrays of molecular-scale features
whose size is dictated by the chemistry of block copolymers. Typically, the process relies on diblock copolymers, which are covalently
linked chains of two different polymers. The two chains that make up the diblock copolymer would "separate at a very large length scale
if they weren't tied together at the molecular length scale," says Paul F. Nealey, a chemical engineering professor at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison.

October 20, 2008
Professor Nealey featured in the October issue of Nanomaterials World [Link]
An exerpt:
Improving lithographic processes to cope with ever-decreasing dimensions is a complex and expensive business, and many engineers are looking to the self-assembly of nanoscale structures as a way around this problem. Paul Nealey’s research group in Madison, and engineers at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in San Jose, California, have demonstrated a patterning technology that, they say, offers improvements over existing methods and could reduce the time and cost
of manufacturing.

The method combines lithography with materials called block copolymers. When added to a surface patterned using lithography, the long molecular chains of the copolymers spontaneously assemble into designated arrangements. The so-called ‘pre-pattern’ is said to provide strong thermodynamic driving forces for directed assembly, with a resolution enhancement by a factor of four or more over traditional materials and processes.

August 14, 2008
Self-assembling polymer arrays improve data storage potential [Link]
A new manufacturing approach holds the potential to overcome the technological limitations currently facing the microelectronics
and data-storage industries, paving the way to smaller electronic devices and higher-capacity hard drives.

"In the past 20 to 30 years, researchers have been able to shrink the size of devices and the size of the patterns that you need to
make those devices, following the use of the same types of lithographic materials, tools and strategies, only getting better and better
at it," says Paul Nealey, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC). 

August 14, 2008
Professor Nealey featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel [Link]
An excerpt:
The continuing effort to squeeze more digital material into ever smaller devices has taken a big step forward at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers have helped develop a novel technique for making computer chips.

The team used materials called "block copolymers" that can assemble themselves into microscopic patterns printed onto chips used
in disk drives. The technique has the potential to make the mass production of higher-capacity drives possible at a reasonable price,
some experts say.

"We’re making structures 1,000 to 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The problem isn’t so much making one of
these structures; it’s making billions of them — and they all have to be perfect," said Paul Nealey, director of the UW-Madison
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

May 1, 2008
Professor Nealey featured in May 2008 issue of APS News [Link]
The article, entitled "Macromolecular Self-Assembly a Promising Alternative to Photolithography", is available online to members only.

An excerpt:
Paul Nealey and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin are investigating techniques to integrate self-assembling block-
copolymers into the lithographic process,with the goal of achiveing sub-15 nanometer resolution while retaining such essential
lithographic benefits as pattern perfection and high-volume manufacturing.