Building a MEMS-based Fab-on-a-Chip as a Technique for Nanomanufacturing

在过去的几十年里，纳米技术研究取得了重大进展，允许在纳米尺度上对物质进行前所未有的控制和理解。 然而，这些进展中的大部分都是使用仪器和技术进行的，虽然这些仪器和技术是强大的研究工具，但当人们从研究迁移到纳米级设备的制造时，它们将无法使用。 从研究到制造产品及其创造的就业机会，需要开发一种新的纳米制造技术，以区别于纳米研究的工具。 在这个项目中，大型（宏观）机器被用来建造小型（微型）机器，然后这些小型机器被用来建造微小或纳米器件和结构。 该方法通过使用本质上是原子级的3D打印机来推进制造技术，从而以数字可编程的方式组装材料。 专注于设计，测试和建模的跨学科方法，以及在外部铸造厂制造MEMS器件，使研究团队能够以新颖的方式参与代表性不足的群体，扩大参与，并为团队提供一个平台，以加强研究生和本科生的工程教育。研究团队将建立，对半导体工厂中常见的所有机器的微型版本进行测试和建模，并将这些设备放置在硅芯片上。 这种“芯片上的工厂”将用于制造纳米器件和结构。 他们将建立无抗蚀剂光刻工具与纳米孔径创建一个聚焦离子束，原子的微源，薄膜厚度监测器，加热器，温度计，掩模，快门，互连和所有其他系统需要制造一个纳米器件。 我们的方法从根本上说是添加剂，因为它可以在需要的时候和需要的地方放置原子，而不是沉积大量的原子，然后在后处理中去除大部分原子，这是现代集成电路制造的传统方法。 微型机器将使用微米级光刻技术制造;纳米级分辨率通过能够以纳米精度调节和控制设备来提供。 在低成本的商业工厂中制造这些设备将使开发成本保持在适度水平。 这也允许团队将“芯片上的Fab”提供给其他人使用，就像晶体生长者向大量其他研究人员提供样品一样。

Over the last several decades, nanotechnology research has made significant progress allowing for unprecedented control and understanding of matter at the nano-scale. However, much of this progress has taken place using instruments and techniques that, while powerful research tools, won't be usable as one migrates from research to the manufacturing of nano-scale devices. Moving from research to making products and the accompanying jobs they create requires the development of a new class of techniques for nanomanufacturing as distinct from tools for nano research. In this project, large (macro) machines are used to build small (micro) machines and then those small machines are used to build tiny or nano devices and structures. The approach advances manufacturing technology through the use of what is, in essence, a 3D printer at the atomic scale allowing for the assembly of materials in a digitally programmable way. The interdisciplinary approach of focusing on design, testing and modeling and having the MEMS devices built in an external foundry allows the research team to engage underrepresented groups in novel ways, broadening participation, as well as giving the team a platform to enhance engineering education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.The research team will build, test and model micro versions of all the machines one typically finds in a semiconductor fab and place those devices on a silicon chip. This "Fab-on-a-Chip" will then be used to manufacture nano devices and structures. They will build resist-free lithography tools with nanometer apertures created with a focused ion beam, micro sources of atoms, film thickness monitors, heaters, thermometers, masks, shutters, interconnects and all of the other systems needed to manufacture a nano device. Our approach is fundamentally additive in that it can place atoms when and where needed instead of depositing large numbers of atoms and then removing most of them in post processing which is the traditional method for modern integrated circuit fabrication. The micro machines will be built using micron scale lithography; nano scale resolution is provided by being able to tune and control the devices with nanometer precision. Building the devices in a low-cost merchant fab will keep the development costs modest. This also allows the team to give "Fabs-on-a-Chip" to others for their use in much the same way a crystal grower provides samples to a large number of other researchers.