Bid for new Electron-Beam Lithography Tool

新型电子束光刻工具招标

• 批准号: EP/P030459/1
• 负责人: Muffy Calder
• 金额: $ 254.84万
• 依托单位: University of Glasgow
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FP030459%2F1
• 关键词: Bid; new; Electron; Beam; Lithography

The last fifty years have seen spectacular progress in the ability to assemble materials with a precision of nanometers (a few atoms across). This nanofabrication ability is built upon the twin pillars of lithography and pattern transfer. A whole range of tools are used for pattern transfer. Lithography is a photographic process for the production of small structures in which structures are "drawn" in a thin radiation sensitive film. Then comes the pattern transfer step in which the shapes are transferred into a useful material, such as that of an active semiconductor device or a metal wire. Lithography is the key process used to make silicon integrated circuits, such as a microprocessor with eight billion working transistors, or a camera chip which is over two inches across.The manufacture of microprocessors is accomplished in large, dedicated factories which are limited to making one type of device. Also, normal lithography tools require the production of large, perfect and extremely expensive "negatives" so that it is only economical to use this technology to make huge numbers of identical devices.The applications of lithography are far broader than just making silicon chips, however. For example, large areas of small dots of material can be used to make cells grow in particular directions or to become certain cell types for use in regenerative medicine; The definition of an exquisitely precise diffraction grating on a laser allows it to produce the perfectly controlled wavelengths of light needed to make portable atomic clocks or to measure the tiny magnetic fields associated with the functioning of the brain; Lithography enables the direct manipulation of quantum states needed to refine the international standards of time and electrical current and may one day revolutionise computation; By controlling the size and shape of a material we can give it new properties, enabling the replacement of scarce strategic materials such as tellurium in the harvesting of waste thermal energy.This grant will enable the installation of an "electron-beam lithography" system in an advanced general-purpose fabrication laboratory. Electron beam lithography uses an electron beam rather than light to expose the resist and has the same advantages of resolution that an electron microscope has over a light microscope. This system will allow the production of the tiniest structures over large samples but does not need an expensive "negative" to be made. Instead, like a laser printer, the pattern to be written is defined in software, so that there is no cost associated with changing the shape if only one object of a particular shape is to be made. The electron beam lithography system is therefore perfect for making small things for scientific research or for making small numbers of a specialized device for a small company. The tool will be housed in a laboratory which allows the processing of the widest possible range of materials, from precious gem diamonds a few millimetres across to disks of exotic semiconductor the size of dinner plates.The tool will be used by about 200 people from all over the UK and the world. By running continuously the tool will be very inexpensive to use, allowing the power of leading-edge lithography to be used by anyone, from students to small businesses. The tool will be supported and operated by a large dedicated team of extremely experienced staff, so that the learning curve to applying the most advanced incarnation of the most powerful technology of the age will be reduced to a matter of a few weeks.

在过去的五十年中，以纳米精度组装材料的能力取得了惊人的进步（遍布几个原子）。这种纳米制作能力建立在光刻和图案转移的双支柱上。整个工具用于模式传输。光刻是用于生产小结构的照相过程，其中结构在薄辐射敏感膜中“绘制”。然后是将形状转移到有用的材料的模式转移步骤，例如活动的半导体设备或金属线的材料。光刻是用于制造硅集成电路的关键过程，例如具有80亿个工作晶体管的微处理器，或超过两英寸的相机芯片。微处理器的制造是在大型的专用工厂中完成的，这些工厂仅限于制造一种设备。同样，正常的光刻工具需要生产大型，完美且极其昂贵的“负”，以便只能使用该技术制造大量相同的设备，这是经济的。例如，大量的小点可用于使细胞在特定方向上生长或成为某些细胞类型，以用于再生医学。在激光器上精确精确的衍射光栅的定义使其能够产生完美控制的光波长，以制造便携式原子钟或测量与大脑功能相关的微小磁场；光刻实现了对完善国际时间和电流标准所需的量子状态的直接操纵，有一天可能有一天会彻底改变计算；通过控制材料的大小和形状，我们可以赋予其新的特性，从而可以在收获废物热能中更换稀缺的战略材料，例如tellurium。这项拨款将在先进的通用制造实验室中安装“电子束光刻”系统。电子束光刻使用电子束而不是光来揭示抗抗性，并且具有与电子显微镜在光学显微镜上具有的分辨率相同的优势。该系统将允许在大型样本上生产最细微的结构，但不需要昂贵的“负”制作。取而代之的是，像激光打印机一样，要编写的图案在软件中定义，因此如果只能制作一个特定形状的一个对象，则与更改形状无关。因此，电子束光刻系统非常适合为科学研究或为小型公司制作少量专用设备。该工具将安置在实验室中，该实验室允许处理最宽的材料范围，从几毫米的珍贵宝石钻石到外来半导体的磁盘，餐盘的大小。该工具将在英国和世界各地的大约200人使用。通过连续运行，该工具的使用将非常便宜，从而允许任何人（从学生到小型企业）使用领先光刻的力量。该工具将由一支由非常有经验的员工组成的大型专用团队支持和运营，因此，应用该时代最强大技术的最先进化身的学习曲线将减少到几周的时间里。