PFI: BIC- Visible-Light Semiconductor Nanolithography

马里兰大学学院园区的这一创新伙伴关系：建设创新能力项目，促进了通过光诱导去活(RAPID)提高分辨率成为半导体纳米光刻的可行商业战略的发展。在传统的光刻技术中，使用单一波长(颜色)的光来曝光一种称为光致抗蚀剂的可成像材料，并通过使用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，其中一种颜色的光曝光光致抗蚀剂，导致所需的光反应，最终产生半导体电路的显影图像，而第二种颜色的光抑制这种曝光。这项技术已经被证明能够创造出远远小于所用光波长的特征。然而，快速光致抗蚀剂的启动和失活的潜在机制仍然知之甚少。拟议中的研究将阐明RAPID的光化学和光物理，并将提供必要的知识来制造适用于半导体行业的快速光致抗蚀剂。这项拟议研究的最终目标是制造能够以20 nm或更小的间距产生10 nm或更小特征的光致抗蚀剂，全部使用可见光。这项研究的更广泛影响是深远的。过去50年来，摩尔定律所体现的在增加集成电路上可容纳的给定空间中的晶体管数量方面的持续进展，一直是一个主要的技术和经济驱动因素。然而，目前提高半导体纳米光刻分辨率的方法涉及使用波长越来越短的辐射或带电粒子，这伴随着不断增加的技术挑战和成本。这些方法也遇到了可能无法克服的障碍。利用可见光进行半导体纳米光刻的能力可能会改变半导体行业的游戏规则，并可能极大地提升美国在该领域的竞争力。可见光的产生、传播和操作成本都很低。然而，RAPID是一种颠覆性技术，与该行业目前追求的方法截然不同，需要更多的发展，才会被认真考虑作为这些方法的替代方案。因此，拟议研究的目标是将快速材料开发到与半导体行业的需求相兼容的状态，以便行业能够进一步将其从研究实验室过渡到工厂。拟议的研究将提高参与的小企业Period Structures，Inc.(PSI)和Lithoguru的生存能力。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将站在RAPID工具设计和开发的前沿，而Lithoguru将开发出几乎所有对RAPID的任何工业实施进行建模所必需的模拟工具。将进行拟议研究的研究生将与PSI和Lithoguru携手合作，不仅在小企业及其文化方面获得宝贵的经验，而且在将研究实验室发现转化为适销对路的技术方面也获得宝贵的经验。通过参与这一项目，他们将发展广泛的技能，这将有利于他们的职业生涯，并使他们处于独特的地位，以促进随后的快速过渡到铸造厂或开发具有进一步先进能力的工具和材料。项目开始时的合作伙伴是马里兰大学学院公园和两家以技术为基础的小型企业：周期结构公司(加州洛斯加托斯，德克萨斯州奥斯汀和新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基)和Lithoguru公司(德克萨斯州奥斯汀)。

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).