Patent ID: 7820064

Claim:
A method, comprising: forming a layer to be patterned over a substrate; forming a spinodal alloy layer on the layer to be patterned, wherein the spinodal alloy layer comprises a plurality of alloy elements and, when the spinodal alloy layer is at a temperature within a spinodal decomposition temperature range for the two phases formed by the alloy elements, decomposes into two phases that are spatially separated and spatially interleaved in a spinodally decomposed periodic structure; controlling a temperature of the spinodal alloy layer to be within the spinodal decomposition temperature range to form the spinodally decomposed periodic structure; patterning the spinodal alloy layer in the spinodally decomposed periodic structure to remove one of the two phases and hence to transform the spinodal alloy layer into a patterned mask which exposes the layer to be patterned according to the spinodally decomposed periodic structure; patterning the layer to be patterned through the patterned mask in the spinodal alloy layer to form a patterned layer; wherein: the patterned layer is an array of isolated islands on the substrate, and the method further comprising: removing the patterned mask in the spinodal alloy layer; and subsequently forming a coating layer made of a single metal element or an alloy to cover the isolated islands and areas of the substrate exposed between the isolated islands; and applying an annealing treatment to the coating layer to cause the coating layer to retract from the areas of the substrate between the isolated islands so that the isolated islands are separately covered by the coating layer leaving a portion of each area of the substrate between two adjacent isolated islands free of the coating layer.