STTR Phase I: A Nanolithography System for Low Cost Nanostructures Research and Applications

STTR 第一阶段：用于低成本纳米结构研究和应用的纳米光刻系统

• 批准号: 9903737
• 负责人: Rodney Petr
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: Science Research Laboratory Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-07-01 至 2000-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9903737&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; Nanolithography; System; Low

This Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) project will experimentally demonstrate that a tabletop point x-ray source reduces exposure time by a factor of at least 100. The university partners in this project have demonstrated deep-sub-100 nm nanolithography using soft x-rays which enables fabrication of complex nanostructures with precision and accuracy on planar substrates. However, the potential of soft x-ray nanolithography has been severely limited by the lack of inexpensive soft x-ray exposure tools. Electron-bombardment point sources, which are currently used, have low power and efficiencies of O.01%. As a result, it takes several hours to complete an exposure. SRL and its university partner propose to build a tabletop, dense plasma focus, x-ray exposure source that will have efficiencies of 1-2%. The plasma source, which will be capable of radiating 10-20 watts of usable soft x-rays into 4 steradians, will reduce the exposure time by a factor of 100 or more. In Phase II, SRL will fabricate a 100 pps source with the goal of creating a compact package that can be commercialized. Deep-sub 100 nm lithography has potential applications in the biological sciences, thin films, optical components, displays and sensors, nanoelectronics and the organization and manipulation of macromolecules and nanoparticles. In addition, a high power, kilowatt-class x-ray point source would provide a modular, affordable proximity source for x-ray lithography. The commercial market for non-semiconductor applications is predicted to be greater than $200 million annually. A low cost, compact deep-sub-100nm lithography system is essential to exploiting these applications.

该第一阶段小型企业技术转让 (STTR) 项目将通过实验证明桌面点 X 射线源可将曝光时间缩短至少 100 倍。该项目的大学合作伙伴已经展示了使用软技术的深亚 100 nm 纳米光刻技术X 射线能够在平面基底上精确地制造复杂的纳米结构。 然而，由于缺乏廉价的软 X 射线曝光工具，软 X 射线纳米光刻的潜力受到严重限制。 目前使用的电子轰击点源功率较低，效率为O.01%。因此，完成一次曝光需要几个小时。 SRL 及其大学合作伙伴提议建造一个桌面密集等离子体聚焦 X 射线曝光源，其效率将达到 1-2%。 等离子源能够将 10-20 瓦的可用软 X 射线辐射到 4 个球面度，将曝光时间缩短 100 倍或更多。 在第二阶段，SRL 将制造 100 pps 源，目标是创建可商业化的紧凑封装。 深亚 100 nm 光刻在生物科学、薄膜、光学元件、显示器和传感器、纳米电子学以及大分子和纳米粒子的组织和操纵方面具有潜在的应用。 此外，高功率千瓦级 X 射线点源将为 X 射线光刻提供模块化、经济实惠的邻近源。非半导体应用的商业市场预计每年将超过 2 亿美元。 低成本、紧凑的深亚 100 纳米光刻系统对于开发这些应用至关重要。