Displacement Talbot Lithography: accelerating a versatile and low-cost patterning technique for precision manufacturing

在过去的50年里，社会受益于电子设备变得越来越小。制造这种小型设备的挑战意味着工艺成本急剧增加，以至于最新的非常小特征的“打印机”成本高达1亿美元。只有少数大批量的产品才能承受这样的成本。然而，新的物理学可能会出现，材料在最小的尺度上-纳米尺度上可能具有新的特性。所以，为了让社会更广泛地使用这些，我们需要开发更便宜的方法来制造小型材料和设备。否则，它们是不可行的，对它们提供的机会的研究将是有限的。这个建议是关于扩展最近开发的一种称为位移塔尔博特光刻的技术，该技术利用光的干涉来制作非常小的图案。然后，我们将联合收割机与其他工艺相结合，如原子层沉积，允许材料可控地涂覆单独的原子层，以进一步减小图案尺寸。该技术令人兴奋，因为它结合了低成本和高产量，并且可以相对容易地扩展到大面积，以进一步提高可制造性;重要的是要在大规模生产中用于社会。作为一项新技术，其潜力仍然相对未知。我们将把图案化技术应用于制造先进材料，这些材料可以将基于硅的传统电子联合收割机与光通信结合起来。虽然硅是制造电子产品的成熟材料，但它对光的管理很差。通过直接在硅上生长良好的光学材料晶体，如磷化铟，我们将联合收割机结合两种材料的最佳性能，制造出一种工程超级材料。但这只能通过使用位移塔尔博特光刻技术实现的非常精细的图案化来实现。为了实现这些目标，巴斯大学和卡迪夫大学正在结合他们的专业知识并共同努力。巴斯的研究人员是大面积纳米纤维的专家，而卡迪夫的研究人员是用于光通信的III-V族半导体晶体生长的专家。我们还将与英国制造业合作，他们有兴趣和能力利用这些成果，并拥有更广泛的行业联系，将利益传递给供应链：纽波特晶圆制造厂是一家先进的半导体加工厂，目前拥有国际整流器，摩托罗拉，三星，STM作为其客户，而PragmatIC半导体是超低成本柔性电子产品的世界领导者。

Over the past 50 years, society has benefitted from electronic devices getting smaller and smaller. The challenge of making such small devices has meant that the processes have increased dramatically in cost, to the extent that the latest 'printer' of very small features costs up to $100M. Only a small number of high-volume products can sustain such a cost. Nevertheless, new physics can occur, and materials can have novel properties at the smallest scales - the nanoscale. So, for society to use these more widely, we need to develop cheaper ways of making small materials and devices. Otherwise, they are unviable, and research into the opportunities that they provide will be limited.This proposal is about extending a recently developed technique called Displacement Talbot Lithography that uses the interference of light to make very small patterns. We will then combine it with other processes, such as atomic layer deposition that allows materials to be controllably coated with individual layers of atoms, to further decrease the pattern size. The technique is exciting because it combines low-cost with high yield and can be scaled relatively easily to large areas, to further increase manufacturability; important for them to be produced at the scale to be used in society at large. Being a new technique, its potential is still relatively unknown.We will then apply the patterning technique to the manufacture of advanced materials that can combine conventional electronics based on silicon with optical communications. Whilst silicon is a mature material for making electronics, it manages light poorly. By growing crystals of good optical materials such as indium phosphide directly on silicon we will combine the optimum properties of both materials to make an engineered super-material. But this can only be done cost-effectively by using the very fine patterning that is possible with Displacement Talbot Lithography.To achieve these goals, the University of Bath and Cardiff University are combining their expertise and working together. Researchers at Bath are experts in large area nanofabrication whilst those at Cardiff are experts in growing group III-V semiconductor crystals for use in optical communications. We will also be partnering with UK manufacturing industry who have the interest and ability to exploit the results and have the wider industry connections to pass on the benefits up the supply chain: Newport Wafer Fab is an advanced semiconductor processing facility that currently boasts International Rectifier, Motorola, Samsung, STM as its clients, whilst PragmatIC Semiconductor is a world leader in ultra-low-cost flexible electronics.