Photomask / Direct Write Lithography Documents

The enabling tool for nano-lithography at JPL is the JEOL JBX-9300FS electron beam lithography system shown in the photo below. This state-of-the-art system is housed in JPL's Microdevices Laboratory, a 38,000-square-foot facility that includes cleanrooms for device processing, material deposition, and conventional laboratories for characterization.

Georgia Tech’s Microelectronics Research Center (MiRC) currently operates a JEOL JBX-9300FS 100kV electron beam lithography system.

Some areas where the lab and division might make a contribution to RD50 objectives.

Brochure.

October 2004, Volume 15, Number 2

An application of hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) negative tone elctron beam resist for a sub-10 nanometer scale fabrication is reported. Flowable Oxide resist solutions in methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) (FOx-12, Dow Corning) was further diluted with MIBK and spun over silicon wafers. Spin-coated films were prebaked for 5 min at 180°C. Characterisation of the resist was carried out. The resist surface roughness after the prebake process was better than 2nm over a 20µm square area measured by an atomic fofce microscopy (AFM). After e-beam irradiation resist was developed in MF322 (Shipley) for 60 s, and then rinse in deionized water for 15 s and blown dry with N2. The measurements of the sensitivity, contrast and etching durability follow. The threshold of the sensitivity about 600 µC/cm2 was found, whereas the dose needed for proper generation of 40 nm lines is about 1300 µC/cm2. We have found that about 13 fC is sufficient to develop properly dots with diameter of 20 nm. The influence of the e-beam source fluctuation on the control of the electron beam exposure is reported.

Soft x-ray scanning transmission x-ray microscopy allows one to image dry and wet environmental science, biological, polymer, and geochemical specimens on a nanoscale. Recent advances in instrumentation at the X-1A beamline at the National Synchotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory are described. Recent results on Nomarski differential phase contrast and first results of investigations at the oxygen K edge and iron L edge of hydrous ferric oxide transformations are presented.

Brochure.

Press release.

InP-based HEMT technology presents substantial performance advantages for millimeter wave applications such as high-speed wireless communications, radio astronomy, and radar. We report on the development of a 50-nm gate-length process for millimeter wave InP HEMTs. The gate patterns were defined using a single electron beam exposure and a bi-layer resist system. The process was evaluated on pseudomorphic InAlAs/InGaAs/InP HEMT material. A two-finger, 100 µm gate-width device showed an extrinsic DC peak transconductance of 650 mS/mm at Vds = 1.0 V. At the same drain bias, the transit frequency and the maximum frequency of oscillation were 180 and 230 GHz respectively. The developed 50-nm process constitutes the new baseline for the InP MMIC process at the Microwave Electronics Laboratory at Chalmers.