Patent ID: 7122296

Claim:
A method of reducing gap size, said method comprising the steps of: providing a substrate having a surface which includes topography formed therein, said topography comprising holes, trenches, or a combination of holes and trenches, said holes and trenches having respective sidewalls and bottomwalls and having respective initial widths; subjecting a quantity of monomers to a process so as to form a thin, conformal layer on said substrate surface, sidewalls, and bottomwalls, said process being selected from the group consisting of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition processes, atomic layer deposition processes, electron beam irradiation, and ultraviolet light irradiation processes, and said monomers comprising a light attenuating compound selected from the group consisting of fluorotoluene, naphthalene, anthracene, furan, thiophene, pyrrole, pyridine, pyrimidine, pyrazine, thiazine. oxazine, acridine, thiazole, pyrazole, oxazole, quinazoline, and quinoxaline; and removing substantially all of the layer from said bottomwalls while retaining said layer on at least some of said sidewalls so as to yield holes, trenches, or combination of holes and trenches having respective second widths which are smaller than the initial widths corresponding thereto.