MRI: Acquisition of Advanced Electron Beam Lithography System for Nanotechnology

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0216248TiwariResearch in nanotechnology is strongly dependent on the PIs' ability to pattern structures at the nano-scale. Electron-beam lithography is the leading tool that makes such patterning possible for a vast variety of projects. Access and availability of this capability is critical to the success of the National Nanotechnology Initiative. This MRI proposal seeks funding for the acquisition of an advanced thermal-field-emission electron-beam lithography system to upgrade the nanolithography capabilities of Cornell Nanofabrication Facility (CNF). This will allow CNF to continue to provide state-of-the-art nanolithography capabilities to the nation's large and rapidly growing community of nanoscience researchers, with improved speed, resolution and placement compared to the existing capabilities in the National Nanofabrication Users Network (NNUN). In 2001, this network served about 1800 users, with ~600 coming to Cornell. This proposal comes at a critical time because one of the two fully-utilized e-beam lithography systems currently in the CNF, a 15-year old Cambridge Instruments EBMF system, has ceased to be supported by the manufacturer and does not meet the requirements of new nanoscience projects.A new E-Beam lithography instrument is a major investment that can only be justified by a large user demand coupled with the infrastructure necessary to fulfill that demand quickly, efficiently and reliably. CNF serves a large and growing group of users with innovative projects from across the nation. It has the necessary staff, software, and hardware infrastructure to routinely achieve state-of-the-art nanolithography, and to transform the patterned structures into devices and systems of interest using integrated processing. CNF has a proven track record over the last 25 years of providing strong user support, a critical mass of expertise, and an effectively maintained resource to the national community. Over 130 researchers used the PIs' e-beam tools last year. The manufacturer-unsupported EBMF system is now beyond its lifetime. A critical failure and loss of the machine is conservatively expected to increase the delay for new users from a period of six weeks to six months. At the same time, the National Nanotechnology Initiative is increasing the nation's demand for e-beam lithography in the 10-100 nm range beyond the capabilities of the EBMF system. CNF is one of the very few institutions throughout the nation that both provides open access and has a record of providing successful nanofabrication solutions. The machine to be purchased will be a choice between Leica GB6 and JEOL 9300, with the final decision to be determined by the capabilities of the machines at the time of the selection. The selection will be based on funds available, reliability of the system, speed of the system, the usability of the software for research projects, the resolution and field-size afforded, and the ability of the manufacturer to service the machine rapidly and reliably, to meet the specifications and to minimize the costs.Researchers at CNF get very strong hands-on training as users of the facility. This allows the staff to work on multiple projects simultaneously and to lend special support to new and inexperienced users. This practical emphasis at CNF is reflected in the large number of electron-beam lithography experts throughout the nation (in industry and in academia) who obtained their major experience through Cornell. In addition to this graduate research emphasis, the PIs have similarly been successful in educational and outreach efforts at the undergraduate level and towards under-represented groups by integrating their research and educational efforts. To address the national resource need of under-represented nanotechnology experts, they will complement their other effort with a program that will identify and support the research of five graduate researchers per year from Howard University through the training and use of the proposed electron-beam lithography system.