PFI: BIC- Visible-Light Semiconductor Nanolithography

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

This Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity project from the University of Maryland, College Park, promotes the development of Resolution Augmentation through Photo-Induced Deactivation (RAPID) into a viable commercial strategy for semiconductor nanolithography. In conventional photolithography, a single wavelength (color) of light is used to expose an imageable material called a photoresist, and finer features are created by using light with a shorter wavelength. RAPID represents a new approach to photolithography in which one color of light exposes a photoresist causing a desired photoreaction that ultimately results in a developed image of a semiconductor circuit and a second color of light inhibits that exposure. This technique has been demonstrated to be able to create features that are far smaller than the wavelength of light employed. However, the underlying mechanisms of initiation and deactivation in RAPID photoresists are still poorly understood. The proposed research will elucidate the photochemistry and photophysics of RAPID and will provide the knowledge necessary to create RAPID photoresists that are suitable for the semiconductor industry. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is to create photoresists that are capable of creating features of 10 nm or less with a spacing of 20 nm or less, all using visible light. The broader impacts of this research are far reaching. The continued progress in increasing the number of transistors that can be fit into a given space on an integrated circuit, which is embodied by Moore's Law, has been a major technological and economic driver over the past five decades. However, current approaches to improving the resolution of semiconductor nanolithography involve the use of radiation or charged particles with ever shorter wavelengths, which goes hand in hand with ever-increasing technological challenges and cost. These approaches have also reached road blocks that may prove insurmountable. The ability to perform semiconductor nanolithography using visible light, which is inexpensive to generate, propagate and manipulate, could be a game changer for the semiconductor industry and could give a major boost to U.S. competitiveness in this field. However, RAPID is a disruptive technology that is vastly different from the approaches currently being pursued in the industry and requires more development before it will be given serious consideration as an alternative to these approaches. The goal of the proposed research is thus to develop RAPID materials to a state in which they are compatible with the needs of the semiconductor industry, so that the industry can further transition them from the research laboratory to the factory. The proposed research will increase the viability of both participating small businesses, Period Structures, Inc. (PSI) and Lithoguru. The proposed work will position these businesses to play a leading role in the transition of RAPID into semiconductor nanolithography and other markets. PSI will be at the forefront of tool design and development for RAPID, while Lithoguru will have developed all of the simulation tools essential for modeling virtually any industrial implementation of RAPID. The graduate students who will perform the proposed research will work hand-in-hand with PSI and Lithoguru, gaining invaluable experience not just in small business and its culture but also in moving a research-laboratory discovery toward a marketable technology. By participating in this project, they will develop broad skill sets that will benefit their careers and will put them in a unique position to facilitate the ensuing transition of RAPID into the foundry or to develop tools and materials with further advanced capabilities. Partners at the inception of the project are the University of Maryland, College Park and two small, technology-based businesses: Periodic Structures, Inc. (Los Gatos, CA, Austin, TX and Albuquerque, NM) and Lithoguru (Austin, TX).