Patent ID: 8741776

Claim:
A method for patterning a plurality of features in a non-rectangular pattern, the method comprising: providing a substrate including a surface with a plurality of elongated protrusions, the elongated protrusions extending in a first direction; forming a first patterned mask layer on the plurality of elongated protrusions using a first mask, the first patterned mask layer covering only a first portion of the plurality of elongated protrusions; patterning the plurality of elongated protrusions using the first patterned mask layer to remove the portions of the plurality of elongated protrusions other than the first portion of the plurality of elongated protrusions thereby forming a first modified pattern of elongated protrusions that corresponds to the first portion of the plurality of elongated protrusions; forming a second patterned mask layer over the first modified pattern of elongated protrusions using a second mask, wherein the second patterned mask layer extends perpendicular to the first direction, and wherein forming the second patterned mask layer over the first modified pattern of elongated protrusions includes performing a photolithography process with the second mask to form the second patterned mask layer over the first modified pattern of the elongated protrusions; providing a third patterned mask layer on the first modified pattern of elongated protrusions using a third mask, the third patterned mask layer being of a different material than the second patterned mask layer and positioned to prevent a portion of the first modified pattern of the elongated protrusions from being altered by a subsequent patterning process; and performing the subsequent patterning process on the first modified pattern of elongated protrusions using the second mask layer and the third mask layer to form the plurality of features in the non-rectangular pattern.