Large Area, Rapid Manufacturing of Virtually Any Nanopattern Using Nanopantography

该研究项目的目标是提高“纳米摄影”的分辨率和书写速度，使其成为具有制造价值的工艺。这项研究将使制造任何所需的纳米图案成为可能，在各种材料中，在大范围内，用相对较短的加工时间。它将建立在已经成功证明的“纳米照相”方法的基础上。这种方法使用大面积离子束，直接对准基板上制造的静电微透镜阵列。通过对微透镜施加适当的电压，并以可控的方式“摇摆”基板，进入透镜的“光束”聚焦到可以以大规模并行的方式在基板上光栅化的点，从而允许以超过5纳米或更小的最先进分辨率快速写入图案。考虑到在器件制造过程中只有几个步骤需要超高分辨率纳米图，改进将导致300毫米直径的全晶圆处理时间约30分钟，这是一个相对较高的吞吐量。这项工作将为两名博士生和两名本科生提供具有挑战性的项目，具有丰富的科学和教育回报，以及技术进步。基本知识将出现在纳米制造，先进的等离子体源，和离子表面相互作用。该项目将对纳米技术的各个领域产生广泛的社会影响，包括微电子设备、生物传感器和显示器。外展活动将提高公众对等离子体应用于纳米技术的社会效益的认识。作为这项工作的一部分，本科生和一名高中教师将参与该项目。

The goal of this research project is to improve the resolution and writing speed of "nanopantography", to make it a manufacturing-worthy process. This research will make it possible to manufacture any desired nanopattern, in a variety of materials, over large areas, with relatively short processing times. It will build on a "nanopantography" method that has been successfully demonstrated. This method uses a large area ion beam, directed at an array of electrostatic microlenses fabricated on a substrate. By applying appropriate voltages to the microlenses and "rocking" the substrate in a controlled fashion, "beamlets" entering the lenses focus to spots that can be rastered across the substrate in a massively parallel fashion, allowing patterns to be written quickly at beyond state-of-the-art resolution of 5 nanometers or less. Improvements will result in a 300 mm-diameter full wafer processing time of ~30 mins, a relatively high throughput, considering that there would be only a few steps requiring ultra-high resolution nanopatterning in a device fabrication process.This work will provide challenging projects for two PhD students and two undergraduates, with rich scientific and educational payoffs, as well as technological advances. Basic knowledge will emerge on nanofabrication, advanced plasma sources, and ion-surface interactions. The project will have broad societal impact on diverse areas of nanotechnology, including microelectronic devices, bio-sensors, and displays. Outreach activities will increase public awareness for societal benefits of plasmas applied to nanotechnology. As part of this effort, undergraduate students and a high school teacher will be involved in the project.