Acquisition of a Workhorse Electron Beam Lithography System for Microstructured Materials and Devices Research

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

0079628 Ling This projects involves the acquisition of a workhorse Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) system using the latest nanopositioning technology for microstructure materials and devices research and education at Brown University. The acquired system consists of a state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope and a Burleigh Inchworm Nanopositioning System as the sample stage. The system offers many of the capabilities, such as the generation of submicron features in a field of view of 25 mm, currently only offered by the multimillion-dollar EBL machines at a small fraction of the cost. A large group of experimentalists at Brown University conduct experimental research at the frontiers of microstructured materials and devices. This workhorse EBL instrument will greatly enhance the research productivity for the existing research programs in condensed matter physics, liquid crystal display technology, small semiconductor devices, novel magnetoelectronics, semiconductor lasers, and experimental cosmology, and open up new exciting research directions, will have a major impact on the materials research and education and will benefit a large number of graduate and undergraduate students at Brown University. This project involves the acquisition of a workhorse Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) system using the latest Burleigh Inchworm nanopositioning technology for micro and nano structured materials and devices research and education at Brown University. The EBL is the state-of-the-art nanotechnology which has revolutionized many areas of science and technology. A large group of experimentalists at Brown University conduct experimental research at the frontiers of microstructured materials and devices. Graduate and undergraduate students at Brown will use the EBL system to fabricate artificially designed patterns for fundamental studies of colloidal crystallization, for applied research in ultrafast transistors and novel magnetoelectronic devices, and for exploring novel liquid crystal materials and for developing sensors for cosmology experiment. The acquired EBL system offers many of the capabilities, such as generating submicron features in a large field of view, currently only offered by the multimillion-dollar EBL machines at a small fraction of the cost. This low-cost EBL system will be housed in the Barus-Holley Building where all physicists and engineers at Brown are working. This instrument will greatly enhance the research productivity for the existing research programs, and open up new exciting research directions, will have a major impact on the materials research and education at Brown and will benefit a large number of graduate and undergraduate students.