Electron Beam Lithography Tool

电子束光刻工具

• 批准号: 530414946
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Major Research Instrumentation
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2022-12-31 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/530414946?language=en
• 关键词: Electron; Beam; Lithography; Tool

Electron beam lithography is the most flexible, most versatile, high performance lithography technique for the realization of nanostructures down to the sub-10 nanometer regime. Due to a relatively small foot print of state-of-the-art instruments and moderate cost of ownership it is ideally suited for academic nanotechnology labs such as the Central Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, the central clean-room facility at RWTH Aachen University providing micro- and nanofabrication technologies for internal as well as external users. While there are two systems for electron beam lithography currently available at the Central Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, the existing tools cannot fulfil the demands of current and future research projects. In particular, the (wafer-scale) fabrication of complex mask patterns as well as the patterning of structures that straddle several write fields have been proven to be inappropriate or even impossible to achieve. The reasons for this include an inadequate pattern generator that cannot handle the large amount of data required for complex patterns and a too large stitching error. Moreover, the restricted acceleration voltage of the existing tools (a maximum of 30 kilovolts) limits the resolution and yields a substantial proximity effect. In many cases the latter cannot be corrected since the necessary, elaborate proximity correction results in such complex mask patterns that cannot be handled by the pattern generator. Finally, the limited acceleration voltage also leads to a charge-up of insulating substrates resulting in significant shifts and distortion of the intended patterns. While a reduced proximity effect and an obviation of the charge-up of insulating substrates can be achieved with rather low acceleration voltages, the lithographic resolution in this case is strongly degraded and requires very thin resist layers that are often unsuitable for etch- and lift-off processes. In addition to the scientific/technical issues of the existing two electron beam lithography tools, both are based on a scanning electron microscopy column which is not manufactured anymore. Thus, access to spare parts is only guaranteed as long as they are available and on stock of the tool manufacturer. Therefore, the Central Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology will sooner or later be incapable of providing electron beam lithography, i.e. the central nanopatterning technique. As a result, funding for a new, state-of-the-art electron beam lithography tool with 100 kilovolts acceleration voltage, minimal stitching errors and capable of handling complex mask patterns is requested, that provides CMNT with the necessary nanoscale lithography capabilities to carry out research projects for the coming years.

电子束光刻是最灵活、最通用、高性能的光刻技术，可实现低至 10 纳米以下的纳米结构。由于最先进的仪器占地面积相对较小且拥有成本适中，它非常适合学术纳米技术实验室，例如微米和纳米技术中央实验室，亚琛工业大学的中央洁净室设施，为内部和外部用户提供微米和纳米制造技术。虽然微纳米技术中心实验室目前有两种电子束光刻系统，但现有工具无法满足当前和未来研究项目的需求。特别是，复杂掩模图案的（晶圆级）制造以及跨越多个写入场的结构的图案化已被证明是不合适的，甚至是不可能实现的。其原因包括图案生成器不足，无法处理复杂图案所需的大量数据以及拼接误差过大。此外，现有工具的有限加速电压（最大 30 kV）限制了分辨率并产生显着的邻近效应。在许多情况下，后者无法被校正，因为必要的、复杂的邻近校正导致图案生成器无法处理如此复杂的掩模图案。最后，有限的加速电压还会导致绝缘基板充电，从而导致预期图案的显着偏移和变形。虽然可以通过相当低的加速电压来实现减少的邻近效应和避免绝缘基板的充电，但在这种情况下光刻分辨率会严重下降，并且需要非常薄的抗蚀剂层，而这通常不适合蚀刻和剥离工艺。除了现有两种电子束光刻工具的科学/技术问题之外，两者都基于已不再制造的扫描电子显微镜镜筒。因此，只有工具制造商有可用且有库存的备件，才能保证获得备件。因此，微纳米技术中心实验室迟早无法提供电子束光刻技术，即核心纳米图案化技术。因此，需要资助一种新型、最先进的电子束光刻工具，该工具具有 100 kV 加速电压、最小的拼接误差并能够处理复杂的掩模图案，为 CMNT 提供必要的纳米级光刻能力，以在未来几年开展研究项目。