Washington, July 9 (ANI): Researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have achieved a significant advance in nanoscale lithographic technology, which could pave the way for the next generation of computer chips, solar cells, and other devices. 

Nanoscale lithographic technology, used in the manufacture of computer chips and other electronic devices, has been advanced by the MIT team to make finer patterns of lines over larger areas than have been possible with other methods.

Their new technique could lead to next-generation computer memory and integrated-circuit chips, as well as advanced solar cells and other devices.

The team has created lines about 25 nanometers (billionths of a meter) wide separated by 25 nm spaces.

For comparison, the most advanced commercially available computer chips today have a minimum feature size of 65 nm.

The MIT technique could also be economically attractive because it works without the chemically amplified resists, immersion lithography techniques and expensive lithography tools that are widely considered essential to work at this scale with optical lithography.

Periodic patterns at the nanoscale, while having many important scientific and commercial applications, are notoriously difficult to produce with low cost and high yield.

The new method could make possible the commercialization of many new nanotechnology inventions that have languished in laboratories due to the lack of a viable manufacturing method.

The MIT team includes Mark Schattenburg and Ralf Heilmann of the MIT Kavli Institute of Astrophysics and Space Research and graduate students Chih-Hao Chang and Yong Zhao of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Schattenburg and colleagues used a technique known as interference lithography (IL) to generate the patterns, but they did so using a tool called the nanoruler, which is designed to perform a particularly high precision variant of IL called scanning-beam interference lithography, or SBIL.

This recently developed technique uses 100 MHz sound waves, controlled by custom high-speed electronics, to diffract and frequency-shift the laser light, resulting in rapid patterning of large areas with unprecedented control over feature geometry.

While IL has been around for a long time, the SBIL technique has enabled, for the first time, the precise and repeatable pattern registration and overlay over large areas, thanks to a new high-precision phase detection algorithm developed by Zhao and a novel image reversal process developed by Chang. (ANI)

Be first to comment this article

Write Comment

Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
Name:
E-mail
BBCode:
Comment:
Code:*
	I wish to be contacted by email regarding additional comments

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.4