Development and commercialisation of dual resist technologies for fabrication in compound semi-conductors

用于复合半导体制造的双抗蚀剂技术的开发和商业化

• 批准号: 72472
• 金额: $ 36.39万
• 依托单位: SCI-TRON LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Study
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=72472
• 关键词: Development; commercialisation; dual; resist; technologies

Use of III-V compound semiconductors (CS) in a range of applications including high speed/power electronics, lasers, power amplifiers for mobile phones, RF/microwave, space-tech and photonics is on rise due to their superior light receiving/emitting functionality, very high frequency signal generation capacity, at-least 100-times more power than their silicon counterparts, high-speed signal processing, low voltage operation and magnetic/heat sensitivity.CS patterning utilises following two major lithographic tools followed by an etch step (where the written pattern is transferred into the CS substrate):* Photolithography(PL)--widely used, working at 365, 248 and 193nm for production of Integrated circuits (ICs); shorter wavelengths are only available for largest manufacturers (e.g. Intel/Samsung/TSMC/Global Foundries) but a large industry depends on fabrication at 365nm.* Electron Beam Lithography(EBL)--used for key steps in electronics (e.g. mask-making) and more widely in smaller foundries to produce micro/nano-structuresIII-V CS hardness presents significant technical challenges to etch thin deep features at high resolution (<100nm) and to etch through multilayer structures required for high-end future applications such as micro Lasers/LEDs, nanoscale spectrometers, sensors and wireless communications.State-of-the-art solutions include positive (ZEP520A-chloroacrylate/styrene copolymer) and negative (HSQ-hydrogensilsesquixoane) tone solutions. ZEP520A gives an etch selectivity of 5:1\. which is insufficient to write deep thin structures, or to etch through multilayers of CS. HSQ can achieve etch-sensitivity of 7:1 but has drawbacks of requiring skilled chemist/lithographer, limited shelf-life due to degradation over time and damage to CS surface through adhesion.Building upon outputs of Innovate-UK project (\#104747) and our expertise in making Heterometallic-Ring-Complexes as building blocks, we have already developed a lab-scale manufacturing process with a throughput of 0.5litres/day of resists which can be used with silicon nanostructures (9nm wide and 330nm high).Driven by global end-user manufacturers' (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CST, Microsemi, NASA, Ryan Briggs, Hughes Research Labs) demand of etching thin deep features at higher resolution and to be able to etch through multilayer structures; we can produce proof-of-principle quantities of (ca. 0.3litres) high-etch resists to be used with CS.This 18months industrial-research project aims to design and build a flexible manufacturing facility producing high-etch resists (capacity=50 litres/annum @ production cost of <£400/litre) to enable fabrication of thinner deeper structures and multilayer structures of differing CS in many fewer write-develop-etch steps.Project success will generate a catalogue of resists, made in small batches by Sci-Tron but all ready for contract manufacture. Sci-Resists will offer competitive advantages to all adopters and help growth of UK's vital high-tech sector.

III-V 族化合物半导体 (CS) 由于其卓越的光接收/发射功能、甚高频信号生成能力、比硅同类产品高至少 100 倍的功率、高速信号处理、低电压操作和磁/热特性，在高速/功率电子、激光器、手机功率放大器、射频/微波、空间技术和光子学等一系列应用中的使用不断增加 CS 图案化利用以下两种主要光刻工具，然后进行蚀刻步骤（其中写入的图案被转移到 CS 基板上）： * 光刻 (PL) - 广泛使用，在 365、248 和 193 nm 下工作，用于集成电路 (IC) 的生产；较短的波长仅适用于最大的制造商（例如英特尔/三星/台积电/Global Foundries），但大型行业依赖于 365nm 的制造。*电子束光刻 (EBL) - 用于电子产品的关键步骤（例如掩模制造），更广泛地用于小型铸造厂，用于生产微/纳米结构III-V CS 硬度对蚀刻提出了重大的技术挑战 以高分辨率（<100nm）刻蚀薄而深的特征，并蚀刻未来高端应用（如微型激光器/LED、纳米级光谱仪、传感器和无线通信）所需的多层结构。最先进的解决方案包括正色调（ZEP520A-氯丙烯酸酯/苯乙烯共聚物）和负色调解决方案（HSQ-氢倍半硅氧烷）。 ZEP520A 的蚀刻选择性为 5:1\。这不足以写入深薄结构，或蚀刻多层 CS。 HSQ 可以实现 7:1 的蚀刻灵敏度，但缺点是需要熟练的化学家/光刻师、由于随时间推移而降解以及通过粘附对 CS 表面造成损坏而导致的保质期有限。基于 Innovate-UK 项目 (\#104747) 的成果以及我们在制造异金属环复合物作为构建块方面的专业知识，我们已经开发了一种实验室规模的制造工艺，其 光刻胶的吞吐量为 0.5 升/天，可用于硅纳米结构（9 纳米宽和 330 纳米高）。受全球最终用户制造商（喷气推进实验室、CST、Microsemi、NASA、Ryan Briggs、休斯研究实验室）以更高分辨率蚀刻薄深特征并能够蚀刻多层结构的需求的推动；我们可以生产用于 CS 的原理验证数量（约 0.3 升）高蚀刻抗蚀剂。这个为期 18 个月的工业研究项目旨在设计和建造一个灵活的制造设施，生产高蚀刻抗蚀剂（产能 = 50 升/年，生产成本 < 400 英镑/升），以便能够在更少的写入-开发-蚀刻中制造更薄的更深结构和不同 CS 的多层结构 步骤。项目的成功将产生一个抗蚀剂目录，由 Sci-Tron 小批量生产，但已准备好进行合同制造。 Sci-Resists 将为所有采用者提供竞争优势，并帮助英国重要高科技行业的发展。