High-Risk Technology Development Co-Funded by The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) 1 Purabi Mazumdar, Program Manager Advanced Technology Program purabi.mazumdar@nist.gov 301-975-4891
NIST s mission is to develop and promote measurement, standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate trade, and improve the quality of life. NIST Assets Include: 3,000 employees 1,600 associates $825 million FY 2003 operating budget NIST Laboratories Advanced Technology Program Manufacturing Extension Partnership ATP is part of NIST 2 Baldrige National Quality Award
ATP Mission To accelerate the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit through partnerships with the private sector. 3
Key Features of the ATP Focuses on the civilian sector Focuses on enabling technologies with high spillover potential Focuses on overcoming difficult research challenges Encourages company-university-laboratory collaboration Positioned after basic science and before product development 4
Examples of Projects in Microlithograhy and Related Technologies Lithography Front-End Processes Defect Inspection Environment, Safety, & Health Metrology 5
Lithography Development and Demonstration of a Multiple, High-Current-Density Shaped E-Beam Column With Independent Vector Beam Placement Multibeam Systems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA 95054 Announced: September 2004 Total project budget: $2,707 K/ ATP funds $1,999 K Nano-Imprint Lithography Infrastructure for Low Cost Replication at the 65 nm node and Beyond Molecular Imprints, Inc., Austin, Texas Participants: Motorola, Inc. Motorola Labs (Tempe, AZ), Photronics, Inc. (Brookfield, CT) KLA-Tencor Corporation (Milpitas, CA), University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX) Announced: May 2004 Total project budget: $.): $36,790 K/ ATP funds $17,623 K 6 Intelligent Mask Inspection System for Next-Generation Lithography KLA-Tencor Corporation, San Jose, CA Other Participants: DuPont Photomask, Inc. (Round Rock, TX), EUV LLC (Livermore, CA.), Photronics, Inc. (Jupiter, FL); Motorola Labs,( Tempe, AZ) Announced: October 1998 Total project budget: $43,355 K / ATP funds $18,912 K
Lithography Continued Intelligent Control of the Semiconductor Patterning Process KLA-Tencor Corporation, San Jose Other participants: FSI International (Allen, Texas); Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.); Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.), University of Michigan, (Ann Arbor, M.I.); the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Irvine Announced: October 1998 Total project budget: $18,292 K / ATP funds $9,110 K Development of a Short Wavelength Pattern Generator Etec Systems, Inc., Hayward, Calif. Announced: October 2000 Total project budget: $5,709 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K (est.) Achromatic Fresnel Optic for EUV and X-ray Radiation: An Innovative Camera Concept for Next Generation Lithography Xradia, Inc., Concord, Calif. Announced: November 2002 Total project budget: $2,665 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K (est.) 7
Front-End Processes Contact Planarization for Microlithographic Processes Brewer Science, Inc., Rolla, Mo. Announced: October 2001 Total project budget: $3,496 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K (est.) Early Prototype Non-Gallium Ion Beam for Lithography and Wafer Manufacturing FEI Company, Micrion Division (formerly Micrion Corp.), Hillsboro, OR Announced: October 1998 Total project budget: $2,309 K / ATP funds $1,582 K Gas-Cluster Ion-Beam Manufacturing Tool for Next-Generation Semiconductor Devices Epion Corp of JDS Uniphase Corporation (formerly Epion Corporation), Billerica, MA Announced: October 1998 Total project budget: $4,137 K/ ATP funds $ 2,000 K 8
Defect Inspection Advanced Wafer Inspection for Next-Generation Lithography KLA-Tencor Corporation, San Jose, Calif. Other Participants: Carnegie-Mellon University (Pittsburgh, P.A.); Tropel Corporation, (Fairport, N.Y.) Announced: October 2000 Total Project budget: $13,720 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $6,717 K (est.) Digital Holographic Inspection of Semiconductor Devices nline Corporation, Austin, Texas Other Participants: InterScience, Inc. (Troy, N.Y.); Light Age, Inc. (Somerset, N.J.); Sarnoff Corporation, (Princeton, N.J.); Oak Ridge National Laboratory, (Oak Ridge, TN) Announced: October 2000 Total project budget: $19,175 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $9,396 K (est.) 9
Metrology Spintronics-Based High-Resolution, Non-Invasive, and Ultrafast Metrology for the Semiconductor Industry Micro Magnetics, Inc., Fall River, MA Announced: September 2003 Total project budget: $3,406 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $ 2,000 K (est.) Develop a nanoscale magnetic tunnel junction current-sensing system for integrated circuit inspection that will help maintain the U.S. lead in semiconductors by providing vastly improved metrology for in-process inspection. Advanced Technology for Non-destructive, Localized, Dielectric Metrology of Future Generation Integrated Circuits Neocera, Inc., Beltsville, Maryland Announced: 2002 Total project budget (est.): $3,378 K / ATP funds $1,968 K Develop microwave metrology technology for quantitative in-situ characterization of materials with low dielectric constants at length scales and frequencies appropriate to future integrated circuit designs. 10
Environmental, Safety, & Health ACIM "Point*Suns": Concentrating Energy Through Silent Sound and Clean Water Uncopiers, Inc., Manhattan, Kan. Announced: August 2001 Total project budget: $2,311 K (est.) / Requested ATP funds: $2,000 K (est.) Design and build an energy-efficient, chemical-free nanoparticle detector and wafer cleaner to enable the semiconductor industry to clean and inspect next-generation wafers reliably and profitably -- locating a nanoparticle on a wafer is equivalent to finding a specific grain of sand on a baseball field. 11
Two Ways to Apply As a Single Company As a Joint Venture Alone With Subcontractors Formal Alliances With Subcontractors + Company University Consortium Research Lab University For-profit company 3-year time limit $2M award cap Company pays indirect costs Large companies cost share at least 60% of total project cost Research Lab University Company At least two for-profit companies 5-year time limit No limit on award amount (other than availability of funds) Industry share >50% total cost Research Lab ATP encourages teaming arrangements Most projects involve alliances 12
Two Major Criteria Scientific and Technological Merit (50%) Technical Rationale Technological Innovation High Technical Risk & Feasibility R&D Plan Potential for Broad-Based Economic Benefits (50%) National Economic Benefits Need for ATP Funding Pathway to Economic Benefits 13
For Information on ATP and to Join Our Mailing List... Call toll-free: 1-800-ATP-FUND (1-800-287-3863) Fax your name and address to: 301-926-9524 Send e-mail to: Visit ATP s website: atp@nist.gov www.atp.nist.gov/ 14
Status of NIST-ATP Program on Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL TM ) January 19, 2005
Resolution is a f(template) 30 nm Dense Lines 20 nm lines 65 nm Posts 35 nm Contacts 100 nm Lines, 150 nm Pitch
Imprint Advantages Early applications in non-si area supports infrastructure development The basic physics for creating 100 nm structures and 5 nm structures with dense pitch remains unchanged Multi-generational opportunity down to the molecular scales No LER from replication Perfect replication (field-to-field CD control) Provided templates can be made No forbidden structures 3D printing capability
Early Applications: Higher Brightness LEDs using Photonic Crystals Goal: High brightness quantum-well heterostructure photonic crystal LED (PXLED) Approach: Photonic crystal patterned on top of GaN layer Experimental Results: Total light extraction gain of ~1.5 times relative to planar LEDs Top-view of Photonic Crystal LED 250nm holes etched into GaN Source: Lumileds, Applied Physics Letters, May 10, 2004 65 nm imprinted contacts
Pathway to IC Implementation Need to develop tool, process and template infrastructure to meet the stringent needs of the IC fabrication process To minimize risk, we are focusing on mix-and-match with conventional lithography for one critical level such as contacts/vias The NIST-ATP project is directed at the 45 nm node with an emphasis on the contact level: To demonstrate feasibility of patterning a full field (25mm by 25mm) at the 45nm node using S-FIL TM with appropriate overlay alignment, CD control and process yields; and a target tool throughput of 25 wafers (300 mm) per hour. In the last 6-12 months of the proposed project, the research results obtained from the activities focused at the 45nm node will be used to identify and quantify the key barriers to the extension of the S-FIL technology to the 32nm node. NIST-ATP Funding - $36.78M; ~50% Matching by Participants
Key Technical Objectives High resolution overlay (~18 nm, 3σ), high throughput (25 wafers, 300 mm, per hour) techniques. This includes understanding the 1X template image placement during e-beam fabrication Patterning and CD control in 1X template fabrication, and in wafer pattern transfer processes for the contact level (at the 45 nm node, the contacts would be targeted to be 55 nm with a CD control of 5.5 nm 3σ) 1X template inspection for defects and repairing of defects Template usage of > 250 wafers (300 mm) before a re-inspect is needed Overall wafer defect management to ensure sufficiently high process yields (at the 45 nm node, less than 0.03 defects per sq. cm counting all defects > 30 nm)
NIST-ATP S-FIL Consortium Template and Wafer Inspection THE UNIVERSITY OF AT AUSTIN Materials Development S-FIL Tool & Process Development Template Development
Step & Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL TM & S-FIL/R TM ) S-FIL S-FIL/R High Silicon Content Overcoat Material Blanket Halogen Etch Oxygen Reactive Ion Etch
Contact Test Vehicle Resist Binary Quartz ~85nm contacts
Patterning Contacts by S-FIL/R 61.10, 63.50 nm (2.40, 2.47) Printed Pillars Holes After Reverse Tone Etch
Alignment Data Raw error signals from the 4 regions/field with ~30 fields/wafer: Errors from the 4 regions decomposed into the basic align parameters: X, Y, Θ, Mag X, Mag Y Wafer # Mean / Std. Dev. Raw X Error (nm) Raw Y Error (nm) X error (nm) Y error (nm) Θ error (µ-rad) M X error (ppm) M y error (ppm) Wafer 1 (No Mag) -15-23 3σ 149 192 1.6 7.0-1.3 5.9 0.01 0.14 4.3 1.6 5.5 2.1 Wafer 2 (No Mag) -13-22 3σ 135 176 1.7 9.6-1.6 6.6 0.01 0.14 5 2.5 1.2 1.4 Wafer 3 (With Mag) 2 0 3σ 26 25 1.6 7.8-0.8 6.5-0.02 0.2-0.09 0.35-0.15 0.28 Mag Correction is Required to Achieve Good Alignment in Mix-and-Match.
E-Beam Inspection Images of ITO Substrate Excellent Contrast Charging OK Molecular Imprints, Inc. confidential. Not to be disclosed without written permission.
Acknowledgements DARPA