Patent ID: 7569491

Claim:
A method of fabricating a nano-scale structure on a substrate, comprising: forming a cap layer on said substrate; forming a mask layer, having a pattern formed therein, on said cap layer; transferring said pattern to said cap layer using an etching process in order to form an opening in said cap layer having an opening lateral critical dimension less than or equal to approximately 500 nm; transferring said pattern to said substrate using an etching process in order to form an open feature within said substrate having an initial substrate lateral critical dimension; laterally etching said open feature in said substrate using another etching process in order to expand said initial substrate lateral critical dimension to a final substrate lateral critical dimension, said final substrate lateral critical dimension being greater than said opening lateral critical dimension formed in said cap layer; depositing a conformal thin film as a liner for said open feature; and closing said opening in said cap layer in order to create a closed feature in said substrate by using one or more vapor deposition processes to deposit material across said opening thereby forming a material membrane sealing said opening to said open feature, wherein the thickness of said material membrane is substantially the same as the thickness of said conformal thin film.