Copolymer formulations, methods of manufacture thereof and articles comprising the same

1. A method comprising:

disposing a mat composition on a surface of a semiconductor substrate; where the mat composition comprises a random copolymer comprising a first acrylate unit and a second unit; where the random copolymer does not comprise a polystyrene or a polyepoxide;

crosslinking the random copolymer;

disposing a brush backfill composition on the substrate; such that the brush backfill composition and the mat composition alternate with each other;

disposing on the brush backfill composition and on the mat composition a block copolymer that undergoes self assembly; and

etching the block copolymer to create uniformly spaced channels in the semiconductor substrate.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising disposing a photoresist on the mat composition and etching the mat composition.

3. The method of claim 1 , where the first acrylate unit is derived from polymerization of monomers having a structure represented by formula (1):

where R 1 is a hydrogen or an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms; or is derived from polymerization of monomers having a structure represented by the formula (2):

where R 1 is a hydrogen or an alkyl group having 1 to 10 carbon atoms and R 2 is a C 1-10 alkyl, a C 3-10 cycloalkyl, or a C 7-10 aralkyl group.

4. The method of claim 1 , where the second unit derived from a polymerization of 2-(1,2-dihydrocyclobutabenzen-1-yloxy)ethyl methacrylate.

5. The method of claim 1 , where the mat composition comprises the structure shown below upon undergoing crosslinking

6. The method of claim 1 , where the second unit is derived from polymerization and/or crosslinking of crosslinkable monomers shown in formulas I-1 to I-20 and formulas M-1 to M-27: