GOALI: Interactions of Plasmas/Energetic Beams with Organic Masking Materials for Nanoscale Manufacturing

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Technical: This GOALI project is being carried out by a multidisciplinary academic and industrial research team aiming for atomistic level understanding of phenomena related to chemical and morphological stability of organic materials utilized in photolithography and plasma-based transfer of nanoscale features/patterns. The team includes established collaborations between researchers at University of Maryland, UC Berkeley, Lam Research Corporation, Rohm & Haas Electronic Materials (RHEM), and Istituto Trentino di Cultura-Institute for Research in Science and Technology, Trento, Italy (ITC-IRST). The approach includes the following: a broad set of organic materials, both model polymer compounds and fully formulated photoresist systems, will be synthesized, characterized and provided to this project (Andes/RHEM). The materials will cover various lithographic approaches. Nanostructures based on photolithographic patterning of the organic materials will also be supplied by RHEM; plasma processing of the organic materials and nanostructures (Oehrlein/U. MD), using a unique plasma shutter system to enable studies of the impact of both short time (~1 s) and conventional (~10s of sec.) plasma exposure times. Industrial pattern transfer conditions used in manufacturing employing commercial equipment and production wafers will be performed (Hudson/Lam Research); complementary well-defined ionic, radical and mixed beam exposures of the organic materials (Graves/UCB); materials, surface and nanostructure characterization (U. MD, UCB, RHEM and ITC-IRST). Static time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry for detailed information on changes of macromolecules by plasma/beam processing (Anderle/ITC-ITR); molecular dynamics simulations of plasma-polymer interactions (Graves/UCB); model formulation based on the composite of the data, model verification, including industrial plasma processing at LRC, will be done jointly. Non-technical: The project addresses basic research issues in a topical area of electronic/photonic materials science with high technological relevance. The interdisciplinary nature of the research, the complementarity and interdependence of the research tasks, and the collaboration among academic and industrial researchers provides exceptional educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.