Patent ID: 7531293

Claim:
A lithographic process for patterning a substrate comprising: providing a substrate and attaching a plurality of radiation sensitive compounds to the substrate, wherein the radiation sensitive compounds include a surface binding group for attachment to the substrate and a metal binding group; exposing the surface attached radiation sensitive compounds to e-beam radiation; complexing the metal binding group of the radiation sensitive compounds with a metal species selected from a metal cation, metal compound, or metal or metal-oxide nanoparticle to form metalized radiation sensitive compounds in a predetermined pattern on the substrate; attaching a connecting ligand to the metalized radiation sensitive compounds followed by complexing a second metal species to the connecting ligand and transferring the pattern to the underlying substrate by dry etching wherein the plurality of radiation sensitive compounds comprises; a surface binding group proximate to one end of the compound for attachment to a substrate; a metal binding group proximate to an opposite end of the compound, wherein the metal binding group is not radiation sensitive; a body portion disposed between the surface binding group and the metal binding group; and a radiation sensitive group positioned in the body portion or adjacent to the metal binding group and wherein the surface binding group is a thiol and the radiation sensitive group is a nitrobenzyl group.