Building a MEMS-based Fab-on-a-Chip as a Technique for Nanomanufacturing

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Over the last several decades, nanotechnology research has made significant progress allowing for unprecedented control and understanding of matter at the nano-scale. However, much of this progress has taken place using instruments and techniques that, while powerful research tools, won't be usable as one migrates from research to the manufacturing of nano-scale devices. Moving from research to making products and the accompanying jobs they create requires the development of a new class of techniques for nanomanufacturing as distinct from tools for nano research. In this project, large (macro) machines are used to build small (micro) machines and then those small machines are used to build tiny or nano devices and structures. The approach advances manufacturing technology through the use of what is, in essence, a 3D printer at the atomic scale allowing for the assembly of materials in a digitally programmable way. The interdisciplinary approach of focusing on design, testing and modeling and having the MEMS devices built in an external foundry allows the research team to engage underrepresented groups in novel ways, broadening participation, as well as giving the team a platform to enhance engineering education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.The research team will build, test and model micro versions of all the machines one typically finds in a semiconductor fab and place those devices on a silicon chip. This "Fab-on-a-Chip" will then be used to manufacture nano devices and structures. They will build resist-free lithography tools with nanometer apertures created with a focused ion beam, micro sources of atoms, film thickness monitors, heaters, thermometers, masks, shutters, interconnects and all of the other systems needed to manufacture a nano device. Our approach is fundamentally additive in that it can place atoms when and where needed instead of depositing large numbers of atoms and then removing most of them in post processing which is the traditional method for modern integrated circuit fabrication. The micro machines will be built using micron scale lithography; nano scale resolution is provided by being able to tune and control the devices with nanometer precision. Building the devices in a low-cost merchant fab will keep the development costs modest. This also allows the team to give "Fabs-on-a-Chip" to others for their use in much the same way a crystal grower provides samples to a large number of other researchers.