PFI: BIC- Visible-Light Semiconductor Nanolithography

该创新伙伴关系：建设创新能力项目由马里兰大学帕克分校发起，旨在促进通过光致失活（RAPID）增强分辨率的发展，使其成为半导体纳米光刻的可行商业策略。在传统的光刻技术中，使用单一波长（颜色）的光来暴露一种称为光刻胶的可成像材料，并通过使用波长较短的光来创建更精细的特征。RAPID代表了一种新的光刻方法，其中一种颜色的光暴露在光刻胶上，引起所需的光反应，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小于所用光波长的特征。然而，快速光刻胶的起始和失活的潜在机制仍然知之甚少。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，以创建适用于半导体工业的RAPID光阻剂。这项研究的最终目标是创造出能够产生10纳米或更小的特征，间距为20纳米或更小的光阻剂，全部使用可见光。这项研究的广泛影响是深远的。摩尔定律（Moore’s Law）体现了集成电路在给定空间内可容纳的晶体管数量的不断增加，这是过去50年来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波长更短的辐射或带电粒子，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，其产生、传播和操作成本低廉，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，与目前业界所采用的方法大不相同，在将其作为这些方法的替代方案进行认真考虑之前，需要更多的开发。因此，拟议研究的目标是将RAPID材料发展到与半导体行业需求兼容的状态，以便行业可以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、Period Structures， Inc. （PSI）和Lithoguru的生存能力。拟议的工作将使这些业务在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将开发所有用于建模几乎任何RAPID工业实施所必需的仿真工具。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的发现转化为市场技术方面获得宝贵的经验。通过参与该项目，他们将发展广泛的技能组合，这将有利于他们的职业生涯，并将他们置于一个独特的位置，以促进RAPID随后向铸造厂的过渡，或开发具有进一步先进能力的工具和材料。该项目的合作伙伴是马里兰大学帕克分校和两家小型技术企业：Periodic Structures， Inc. （Los Gatos， CA, Austin， TX和Albuquerque， 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).