“…The fabrication of these layers currently relies on repeated deposition, photolithography, and etching steps . However, photolithography-based fabrication schemes typically result in edge placement errors (EPEs), which are discrepancies between the intended and actual feature positions. − For sub-5 nm technology nodes, these EPEs become the bottleneck in the fabrication of reliable devices. ,, As a result, several self-aligned and bottom-up fabrication schemes are being explored, either to complement or replace steps of the traditional top-down fabrication schemes. The starting point for self-aligned fabrication by area-selective deposition (ASD) is a predefined pattern consisting of a set of materials on which deposition is desired (i.e., the growth areas) and a set of materials on which deposition should be avoided (i.e., the non-growth areas).…”