PFI: BIC- Visible-Light Semiconductor Nanolithography

这种创新伙伴关系：马里兰州大学帕克分校的建设创新能力项目促进了通过光诱导失活提高分辨率（RAPID）的发展，使其成为半导体纳米光刻的可行商业战略。在传统的光刻中，使用单一波长（颜色）的光来曝光称为光致抗蚀剂的可成像材料，并且通过使用具有较短波长的光来创建更精细的特征。RAPID代表了一种新的光刻方法，其中一种颜色的光使光致抗蚀剂曝光，引起最终导致半导体电路的显影图像的期望的光反应，而第二种颜色的光抑制该曝光。这种技术已经被证明能够创建远小于所采用的光波长的特征。然而，RAPID光致抗蚀剂的引发和失活的基本机制仍然知之甚少。拟议的研究将阐明RAPID的光化学和光物理学，并将提供必要的知识，以创建适合半导体工业的RAPID光刻胶。这项研究的最终目标是利用可见光制造出能够产生10 nm或更小、间距为20 nm或更小的特征的光刻胶。这项研究的广泛影响是深远的。在增加可以装配到集成电路上的给定空间中的晶体管的数量方面的持续进步（其由摩尔定律体现）在过去五十年中一直是主要的技术和经济驱动力。然而，目前提高半导体纳米光刻分辨率的方法涉及使用具有更短波长的辐射或带电粒子，这与不断增加的技术挑战和成本密切相关。这些办法也遇到了可能无法克服的障碍。使用可见光进行半导体纳米光刻的能力，其产生，传播和操纵成本低廉，可能会改变半导体行业的游戏规则，并可能大大提高美国在该领域的竞争力。然而，RAPID是一种颠覆性技术，与行业中目前采用的方法有很大不同，在认真考虑将其作为这些方法的替代方案之前，需要进行更多的开发。因此，拟议研究的目标是将RAPID材料开发到与半导体行业需求相兼容的状态，以便该行业能够进一步将其从研究实验室过渡到工厂。拟议的研究将增加参与的小企业，时期结构公司的生存能力。(PSI)还有Lithoguru拟议的工作将使这些企业在RAPID向半导体纳米光刻和其他市场的过渡中发挥主导作用。PSI将处于RAPID工具设计和开发的最前沿，而Lithoguru将开发所有对RAPID几乎任何工业实施建模必不可少的模拟工具。谁将执行拟议的研究的研究生将与PSI和Lithoguru携手合作，不仅在小企业及其文化中获得宝贵的经验，而且在将研究实验室的发现推向可销售的技术方面也获得了宝贵的经验。通过参与该项目，他们将发展广泛的技能，这将有利于他们的职业生涯，并将使他们处于一个独特的位置，以促进RAPID向铸造业的过渡，或开发具有更先进能力的工具和材料。该项目的合作伙伴是马里兰州大学，学院公园和两个小的，以技术为基础的企业：周期结构公司。(Los Gatos，CA，Austin，TX和阿尔伯克基，NM）和Lithoguru（Austin，TX）。

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).