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.

电子束光刻是实现纳米结构的最灵活、最通用、高性能的光刻技术，其精度可达10纳米以下。由于尖端仪器的占地面积相对较小，拥有成本适中，它非常适合学术纳米技术实验室，如RWTH亚琛大学的微和纳米技术中央实验室，该中心为内部和外部用户提供微和纳米加工技术。虽然微纳技术中心实验室目前有两套电子束光刻系统，但现有工具不能满足当前和未来研究项目的需要。特别是，复杂掩模图案的(晶片规模)制造以及跨几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。出现这种情况的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，以及拼接错误太大。此外，现有工具的有限加速电压(最大30千伏)限制了分辨率，并产生了相当大的接近效应。在许多情况下，后者不能被校正，因为必要的、精细的邻近校正导致无法由图案生成器处理的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的充电，从而导致预期图案的显著漂移和变形。虽然可以在相当低的加速电压下实现减少邻近效应和减少绝缘衬底的充电，但这种情况下的光刻分辨率严重下降，并且需要非常薄的抗蚀剂层，这通常不适合蚀刻和剥离工艺。除了现有的两种电子束光刻工具的科学/技术问题外，这两种工具都是基于扫描电子显微镜柱，该柱已不再制造。因此，只有在备品备件可供使用且工具制造商有库存的情况下，才能保证获得备品备件。因此，微纳技术中心实验室迟早将无法提供电子束光刻，即中央纳米刻蚀技术。因此，需要为一种新的、最先进的电子束光刻工具提供资金，该工具具有100千伏的加速电压、最小的缝合误差和能够处理复杂掩模图案的能力，为CMNT提供必要的纳米级光刻能力，以便在未来几年开展研究项目。