PFI-TT: Development of a new patterning system for accelerated innovation and advanced manufacturing of microchips

PFI-TT：开发新的图案化系统，以加速微芯片的创新和先进制造

• 批准号: 2141118
• 负责人: Geoffrey Beach
• 金额: $ 25万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-15 至 2024-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2141118&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PFI; TT; Development; new; patterning

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will be the development of a new technology that enables innovation in microchip design, development, and manufacturing by providing a platform for rapidly imprinting the elementary features on the chip. The proposed research will provide new insights into reconfigurable materials whose properties can be altered electrically at very short length scales. These materials will be applied to control the transmission of light that is used to write features in microchips, allowing microchip patterns to be designed and adapted on demand. If successful, the resulting technology will reduce production costs and enable rapid design, manufacturing, and customization. The technology may accelerate innovation in the production of microchips that underpin applications including information systems, healthcare, military systems, and the automotive industry. These activities will result in substantive training opportunities in advanced technology, commercialization, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Outreach efforts integrated into the program will increase the participation of underrepresented groups in the innovation process by including community college participants as well as involving high school students in the innovation process through seminars and workshops.The proposed project will introduce a new approach to reduce microchip fabrication cost and achieve faster turnaround time, through an advanced manufacturing technology that enables flexible and rapid patterning and prototyping with high throughput. Microchip manufacturing is based on using light to transfer a pattern from a master photomask to a semiconductor wafer, which allows for the building up of complex, interconnected device architectures in a scalable way. The currently available photomasks are static so each new chip design requires a new mask set. However, these sets can cost upwards of a few million dollars with a long lead time. The research objectives focus on developing a technology that allows individual pixels on a mask to be lightened or darkened so that the transmitted pattern can be adapted on demand. The work includes engineering to optimize materials whose optical properties depend on an applied voltage, enhancing the performance of these materials, understanding the origins of their properties to aid in their engineering, and integrating them into mask structures to test and improve the pattern transfer process in lithography systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该创新合作伙伴关系 - 技术转化 (PFI-TT) 项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是开发一种新技术，通过提供一个在芯片上快速印记基本功能的平台，实现微芯片设计、开发和制造方面的创新。 拟议的研究将为可重构材料提供新的见解，这些材料的特性可以在非常短的长度尺度上进行电改变。这些材料将用于控制用于在微芯片中写入特征的光的传输，从而允许根据需要设计和调整微芯片图案。 如果成功，由此产生的技术将降低生产成本并实现快速设计、制造和定制。 该技术可能会加速微芯片生产的创新，这些微芯片是信息系统、医疗保健、军事系统和汽车行业等应用的基础。这些活动将带来先进技术、商业化、创业和创新方面的实质性培训机会。 纳入该计划的外展工作将通过包括社区大学参与者以及让高中生通过研讨会和讲习班参与创新过程，增加代表性不足的群体对创新过程的参与。拟议项目将引入一种新方法，通过先进的制造技术降低微芯片制造成本并实现更快的周转时间，该技术能够实现灵活、快速的图案化和高吞吐量的原型设计。微芯片制造基于使用光将图案从主光掩模转移到半导体晶圆，这允许以可扩展的方式构建复杂的互连设备架构。 目前可用的光掩模是静态的，因此每个新的芯片设计都需要新的掩模组。然而，这些套件的成本可能高达数百万美元，而且交货时间较长。 研究目标集中于开发一种技术，使掩模上的各个像素变亮或变暗，以便可以根据需要调整传输的图案。 这项工作包括优化光学特性取决于所施加电压的材料的工程，增强这些材料的性能，了解其特性的起源以帮助其工程设计，并将它们集成到掩模结构中以测试和改进光刻系统中的图案转移过程。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。