Process for making island arrays

Abstract

A method of fabricating electronic, optical or magnetic device; requiring an array of large numbers of small feature in which regions defining individual features of the array are foamed by the steps of: (a) depositing a very thin film of a highly soluble solid onto a flat hydrophilic substrate (b) exposing he film to solvent vapour under controlled conditions so that the film reorganises into an array of discrete hemispherical islands on the surface, (c) depositing a film of a suitable resist material over the whole surface; (d) removing the hemispherical structures together with their coating of resist leaving a resist layer with an array of holes corresponding to the islands; and (c) subjecting the resulting structure to a suitable etching process so as to form a well at the position of each hole. The wells which ate formed by this process may be used to fabricate various types of devices, including arrays of semiconductor devices, and crystalline heterostructures in which the lattice constants of the component materials are different.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.