Equipment: Acquisition of a laser direct-write photolithography system

光刻是半导体、电子和光学集成电路制造中最昂贵和最关键的步骤。复制数百万相同副本的能力在制造业中具有优势，但在研发/教育环境中，我们通常只需要少量原型副本。目前的芯片原型制作方法需要每个光刻步骤的光罩外包制造。提出的激光光刻能力将消除光掩模步骤，使研究人员能够直接在芯片或晶圆上印刷光刻图案，从而显著加快研究进展并降低开发成本。技术上的差异和相应的优势类似于模具复制与3D打印。就像电子、机械和软件的进步使高质量的3D打印成为可能一样，紫外线激光器、聚焦光学和机械定位精度的最新进展也使直写光刻成为可能。该项目汇集了来自工程和科学领域的不同研究人员，在半导体材料、光子和生物技术芯片、成像科学和先进光刻工艺开发等多个领域取得进展。这个工具也是理想的结合实践经验的研究生和本科生学习半导体制造。这种能力将成为我们半导体制造业劳动力发展计划的一个不可或缺的培训模块，并将扩大我们与该地区社区大学和少数族裔服务机构的成功和持续的关系。Raith PicoMaster 150直写激光束光刻（LBL）系统可以在几小时内实现复杂器件的快速原型制作，而不是几周，通过避免中间掩模步骤的需要，成本显著降低。该设备能够实现小至300纳米的特征尺寸，将有助于推进我们目前在集成光子学和电子学方面的教育、研究和行业合作伙伴关系。该项目汇集了来自光电、电气工程、工程技术、物理和生物等部门的不同研究人员。将立即受益于该工具的具体研究活动包括纳米图形相变材料（PCM）、光子集成电路（PIC）、宽带隙电子、软/可穿戴电子、新型光谱成像和芯片上的实验室生物医学设备。此外，我们将与Raith合作探索分辨率增强技术，如自对准双模式（SADP），这可以将工具的光学分辨率提高到100纳米。拟议的光刻能力将使学生的设计快速周转，在我们的洁净室立即制造。它将允许器件，如mosfet和光电探测器的设计和制造在一个学期的课程。这将增强我们的研究生和本科生的体验式学习，这在以前是不可能的，因为与基于光掩模的光刻工艺相关的漫长的交货时间和成本。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Lithography is the most expensive and most critical step in the fabrication of semiconductor electronic and optical integrated circuits. The ability to reproduce millions of identical copies has advantages in manufacturing but in an R&D/educational setting we typically only need a handful of prototype copies. The current method of chip prototyping requires outsourced manufacturing of photomasks for each lithography step. The proposed laser lithography capability will eliminate the photomask step and enable researchers to directly print lithography patterns on a chip or wafer, thereby significantly accelerating research progress and reducing development cost. The difference in technique and corresponding advantages is analogous to mold replication vs 3D printing. Just like advances in electronics, mechanics and software have enabled high-quality 3D printing, recent advances in UV lasers, focusing optics and mechanical positioning accuracy have enabled direct-write photolithography. This project brings together a diverse group of researchers from Engineering and Science to make advances in several areas such as semiconductor materials, photonic and biotechnology chips, imaging science and advanced lithography process development. This tool is also ideal for incorporating hands-on experience for graduate and undergraduate students studying semiconductor manufacturing. This capability will become an integral training module for our semiconductor manufacturing workforce development initiatives and will augment our successful and on-going relationships with community colleges and minority-serving institutions in the region.The Raith PicoMaster 150 direct-write laser beam lithography (LBL) system will enable rapid prototyping of complex devices in hours instead of weeks with significantly lower cost by circumventing the need for the intermediate photomask step. With the ability to achieve feature sizes down to 300 nm, this equipment will help advance our current education, research, and industry partnerships in integrated photonics and electronics. This project brings together a diverse group of researchers from the Departments of Electro-Optics & Photonics, Electrical Engineering, Engineering Technology, Physics and Biology. Specific research activities that will immediately benefit from this tool include nano-patterned phase change materials (PCM), photonic integrated circuits (PIC), wide bandgap electronics, soft/wearable electronics, novel spectroscopic imaging, and lab-on-a-chip biomedical devices. Additionally, we will collaborate with Raith to explore resolution enhancement techniques such as self-aligned double patterning (SADP), which could enhance the optical resolution of the tool down to 100 nm. The proposed lithography capability will enable fast turnaround of designs made by students for immediate fabrication in our cleanroom. It will allow devices such as MOSFETs and photodetectors to be designed and fabricated during a single semester course. This will enhance the experiential learning of our graduate and undergraduate students, which was not previously possible due to the lengthy lead-times and costs associated with the photomask-based lithography process.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.