Generation of Smooth Surfaces Employing Polymer-Based Coatings

Roughness can be used as an indicator for the performance of a component, since irregularities in the surface can reduce adhesion or form nucleation sites for cracks or corrosion. Decreasing the roughness of a surface, however, will usually exponentially increase its manufacturing costs. This dependence often leads to huge efforts to precisely define the balance between the manufacturing costs of a component and its performance. Moreover, preservation of smooth surfaces, in particular during storage and transport, but also in application, requires careful manipulations by, e.g., permanent or temporary surface coverage. In this project, a bilateral approach will aim at improving the current state-of-the-art situation regarding the generation and preservation of smooth surfaces, (i) scaling-up the synthesis of lead compounds for the fabrication of tailor-made permanent coatings and (ii) finding the correlation between the textures of semiconductor surfaces and the corresponding grip of photoresists.