Bottom-up microdomain

Abstract This article is a review of the chemical and physical nature of patternable block copolymers and their use as templates for functional nanostructures. The patternability of block copolymers, that is, the ability to make complex, arbitrarily shaped submicron structures in block copolymer films, results from both their ability to self-assemble into microdomains, the bottom-up approach, and the manipulation of these patterns by a variety of physical and chemical means including top-down lithographic techniques. Procedures for achieving long-range control of microdomain pattern orientation as well... 

The use of top-down lithographic techniques to topographically pattern substrates and thereby control the film thickness has been used to create submicron patterns that contain oriented microdomains. This approach is generally described as the graphoepitaxy method and will be discussed in further detail in Sect. 4.1, with other methods which use top-down approaches to control the bottom-up block copolymer patterns. 

The formation of bottom-up block copolymer patterns within or on top-down substrate patterns is the basis for so-called templated self-assembly processes, in which long-range order and orientation of microdomain patterns can be imposed by a template or guide . These top-down templates can take a variety of forms including periodic thickness profiles and chemically patterned surfaces. 

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