Direct stamp fabrication for NIL and hot embossing using HSQ

Commonly stamps or masters for nanoimprinting are made by electron beam lithography (EBL) and subsequent reactive ion etching into silicon. Here we present a single step procedure to prepare stamps suitable for nanoimprinting and hot embossing. The stamps are directly fabricated in HSQ (hydrogen silsequioxane), a negative EBL resist, which has a high lateral resolution and good mechanical properties. We demonstrate successful pattern transfer in both bulk PMMA and PCL by hot embossing with features down to 20 nm. Such pattern transfer is useful for biological applications. Also, we demonstrate that this approach can make stamps suitable for nanoimprint lithography and have achieved features as small as 35 nm. It was found that the stability and strength of the HSQ could be improved by annealing and that the application of a non-stick coating was not necessarily required although it aided the demoulding.     

Nanoimprint lithography resist profile inversion for lift-off applications

A method is described in which the tapered features that are inherent to nanoimprint lithography are inverted to allow successful lift-off. A mold of the relief is created by in-filling the imprinted resist with hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) before selectively removing the resist with O₂ plasma. Nanoscale etch masks have been created by lift-off from the negative HSQ profile and used to create high-aspect-ratio structures in materials that are hard to plasma etch.     

推陈出新,创办高水平的《学报》品牌——庆贺《军医进修学院学报》创刊30周年

电子束光刻(EBL)具有高的分辨率,能制备具有亚微米尺寸的声表面波(SAW)器件.一种采用EBL技术制备用于气体传感器的具有亚微米尺寸的SAW延迟线的方法:首先利用EBL在压电衬底上获得叉指换能器(IDT)的电子抗蚀剂图形;然后用剥离工艺制作出IDT电极.通过邻近效应校正和提高场拼接精度,制作的叉指电极具有一致性,电极形貌好.相对于干法刻蚀工艺,剥离工艺避免了对压电衬底表面的物理损伤.该技术为实现特征尺寸达到百纳米级的更高工作频率SAW器件的制造提供了很好的途径.     

电子束零宽度线曝光及其应用

为了提高电子束光刻的图形质量及光刻分辨率,从入射束能和束流密度等方面探讨了克服邻近效应影响的途径,在制备亚30 nm结构图形时采用零宽度线曝光的方法。该方法把版图上线条的宽度设为零,因此该线条的光刻尺寸取决于电子束束斑大小、曝光剂量与显影条件。在400 nm厚HSQ抗蚀剂层上通过零宽度线曝光技术制作出了线宽20 nm网状结构的抗蚀剂图形,实验证明采用零宽度线曝光技术可以比较容易地制作出密集线以及高深宽比的抗蚀剂图形。将该技术应用到扫描电镜放大倍率校准标准样品的制备,取得了较好的效果。零宽度线曝光技术是实现电子束直写曝光极限分辨率的有效方法。     

Soft UV-NIL at 20 nm scale using flexible bi-layer stamp casted on HSQ master mold

In this paper we present a comparative study of two e-Beam Lithography (EBL) processes for Nanoimprinting Lithography (NIL) master mold, i.e. the standard PMMA based EBL Si patterning process and the HSQ process. 20 nm features with minimal sidewall roughness and high uniformity are demonstrated on large surface by using HSQ process. Moreover, to validate this ultra-high resolution HSQ EBL process and to check NIL resolution performances, soft UV-NIL replications were performed using soft hard-PDMS/PDMS bi-layer stamps casted on the HSQ master mold. We demonstrate the replication of sub-20 nm nanodots of high density (pitch 60 nm) with a good uniformity on the whole field area.     

Filling behavior of UV nanoimprint resin observed by using a midair structure mold

The filling behavior of resin during UV nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) was observed by using a “midair structure mold” and by changing the imprint pressure. The midair structure molds were fabricated by electron beam lithography (EBL) using hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) as a negative tone resist. After the fabrication of midair structure mold, two types of surface treatment molds, which were with or without release coating, were prepared. Using these molds, the filling behavior of a UV curable resin was investigated at various pressures. The results indicate that a pressure of approximately 1.2 MPa is necessary for complete filling in the case of molds treated with a release agent. This method demonstrates effect of a release coating for UV-NIL.     

X射线光刻和剥离技术制作声表面波叉指换能器

提供了采用电子束光刻、X射线光刻和金属剥离技术制作亚微米尺寸的声表面波叉指换能器的方法.首先利用电子束光刻和微电镀技术制作x射线光刻的掩模,然后利用X射线光刻和剥离技术高效地制作大面积、纳米尺电、电极陡直均匀的叉指换能器.制备出的叉指电极特征尺寸为600 nm,面积为4 mm×6 mm,断指率小于3‰,可应用于高频声表面波器件中.研究结果表明,X射线光刻结合剥离技术是一种制备高频SAW器件的优良方法.     

HSQ用于电子束曝光的性能分析

作为一种非化学放大的无机负性电子束光刺抗蚀剂,HSQ(hydrogen silsesquioxane)具有极高的分辨率(约5 nm),由于灵敏度较低,限制了其在微纳米加工方面的应用.从化学结构变化的角度分析了HSQ在电子束曝光中的性能,通过实验验证了其灵敏度及对比度受前烘温度及显影液浓度的影响较大,并且其在电子束曝光中的邻近效应也可以通过改变这两个条件而得到一定的抑制.根据所得优化工艺条件,在450 nm胶层上,制作出100 nm等间距光栅结构胶层图形,且其侧壁陡直性良好.     

Lithography scaling issues associated with III–V MOSFETs

In this work we investigate fabrication issues associated with scaling down the gate length and source drain contact separation of a III–V MOSFET. We used high resolution electron-beam lithography and lift-off for gate and ohmic contact patterning to fabricate gate-last lithographically-aligned MOSFETs. This work considers the effect of variations in resist thickness on gate lengths and also the fabrication of long narrow gaps using electron-beam lithography. The study showed that the effect of resist thickness variation on metal linewidth is insignificant. A difference of around 2–3 nm was found between PtAu linewidths fabricated using 150 and 280 nm thick resist. A VB6 lithography tool was found to be useful for linewidth measurements. We showed that the choice of resist is critical to gap formation, and that PMMA is not well suited to this task.     

Fabrication of metallic oxide nanowires

Micron length nanowires with varying widths were patterned in half-metallic La_2/3Sr_1/3MnO₃ (LSMO) thin films of different thicknesses, using a thin negative-tone electron beam lithography (EBL) process. Patterns were realized in the high resolution hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) inorganic resist and successfully transferred to the manganite via an energetic argon ion beam etching (IBE). We have obtained wires with widths down to 65 nm and length up to 4 μm that exhibit transport properties comparable with those of unpatterned thin films.     

Improvement of PMMA electron-beam lithography performance in metal liftoff through a poly-imide bi-layer system

Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a commonly used resist for electron-beam lithography. Some primary reasons for the widespread popularity of PMMA include high resolution and low cost. Single layer PMMA has notably poor characteristics in metal liftoff and sub-15 nm resolution as well as poor line edge roughness. Standard problems with liftoff such as tags, feature removal and lack of solvent penetration were alleviated with a poly-imide lift-off layer which increased resolution and allowed better liftoff. The effect of dense feature proximity over-dose was also reduced with this method. Single lines in metal as small as 23 nm were achieved and denser patterns were resolved with a pitch of 50 nm. These results increase the utility of PMMA as a nanolithographic material for fabricating small metallic features by the use of a liftoff technique.     

10 nm lines and spaces written in HSQ,using electron beam lithography

Hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ) is a high-resolution negative-tone inorganic resist with an established resolution below 10 nm. Using 100 keV electron beam lithography, we report the achievement of isolated 6 nm wide lines in 20 nm thick HSQ layers on silicon substrates. We also achieved 10 nm lines and spaces in a 10 nm HSQ layer. This is the smallest pitch (20 nm) achieved to date using HSQ resist. Experiments in order to investigate the effect of KOH based developer on ultimate resolution have been also performed and resulted in 7 nm wide lines. These results, in combination with the good etching resistance of HSQ, prove the versatility of HSQ for nanolithography.     

拓展临近效应由纳米连接制备亚20nm金属Nanogaps

描述了一种拓展电子束光刻中的临近效应来制备特征尺寸在亚20nm的金属Nanogap的方法.结合图形转移过程(如去胶等),利用临近效应灵活有效地制备了金属(如Au或者Ag等)Nanogap结构及其阵列.采用GDSII软件设计图形,以电子束光刻为手段制备Nanogap的原始纳米连接图形,然后通过去胶过程获得金属的Nanogap.另外,通过控制电子束光刻的剂量,能够把Nanogap的尺寸降低到约10nm.     

拓展临近效应由纳米连接制备亚20nm金属Nanogaps

描述了一种拓展电子束光刻中的临近效应来制备特征尺寸在亚20nm的金属Nanogap的方法. 结合图形转移过程（如去胶等）,利用临近效应灵活有效地制备了金属（如Au或者Ag等）Nanogap结构及其阵列. 采用GDSII软件设计图形,以电子束光刻为手段制备Nanogap的原始纳米连接图形,然后通过去胶过程获得金属的Nanogap. 另外,通过控制电子束光刻的剂量,能够把Nanogap的尺寸降低到约10nm.     

Double-layer resist films for submicrometer electron-beam lithography

This paper describes a double-layer resist-film technique for submicrometer electron-beam lithography. The results of computer simulation and lithography experiments carried out on PMMA/MPR (LO/HI) and MPR/PMMA (HI/LO) double-layer films are reported in full detail. It is shown that an undercut profile suitable for the lift-off processing can be reproducibly obtained by the use of the LO/HI structure over a wide range of electron-beam exposure dose, while the HI/LO structure is of great advantage in the fabrication of lift-off metal gates with a mushroom-like cross section.     

Comparative study of e-beam resist processes at different development temperature

The effect of development temperatures on the performance of three mostly used e-beam resists, ZEP-520, HSQ and SAL-601 have been investigated. For the positive resist ZEP-520, the contrast increases significantly, but the sensitivity decreases, with the decreasing of the development temperature. On the other hand, the negative resist HSQ whose sensitivity decreases dramatically, but the contrast increases, with the increase of developer temperature. Unlike the negative resist HSQ, the sensitivity of the negative chemically amplified resist SAL-601 enhances with the increase of the developer temperature and the contrast decreases. Using high contrast process, we have achieved high dense patterns with e-beam lithography at low electron energy.     

200nm栅长In0.52Al0.48As／In0.6Ga0.4As MHEMTs器件

利用电子束光刻技术制备出200nm栅长GaAs基InAIAs/InGaAs MHEMT器件.Ti/Pt/Au蒸发作为栅极金属.同时为了减少栅寄生电容和寄生电阻,采用3层胶工艺,实现了T 型栅. GaAs基MHEMT 器件获得了优越的直流和高频性能,跨导、饱和漏电流密度、域值电压、电流增益截止频率和最大振荡频率分别达到510mS/mm, 605mA/mm, -1.8V, 110GHz及 72GHz,为进一步研究高性能GaAs基MHEMT器件奠定了基础.     

Fabrication of metallic nanocavities by soft UV nanoimprint lithography

We propose a process combining UV-assisted nanoimprint lithography (NIL) and shadow mask evaporation techniques to fabricate metallic nanoparticles with cavities. A bi-layer transparent soft stamp with a hard top layer containing the high resolution patterns was obtained by spin coating and casting methods of PDMS. Then, it was used to mold the top photo-curable resist on a thick PMMA layer. After removal of the residual NIL resist layer, high density and high aspect ratio PMMA nanopillar arrays were obtained by reactive ion etching. Afterward, a four step evaporation under oblique angle was performed to deposit the gold nanostructures at the top of nanopillars. After lift-off, uniformly sized gold nanocavities were collected. Dark-field microscopy imaging of the fabricated nanocavities shows a clear geometry dependence of the emission peak wavelength, thereby providing a novel types of bio-sensing nano-objects.     

200nm栅长In0.52Al0.48As/In0.6Ga0.4As MHEMTs器件

利用电子束光刻技术制备出200nm栅长GaAs基InAlAs/InGaAs MHEMT器件.Ti/Pt/Au蒸发作为栅极金属.同时为了减少栅寄生电容和寄生电阻,采用3层胶工艺,实现了T型栅.GaAs基MHEMT 器件获得了优越的直流和高频性能,跨导、饱和漏电流密度、域值电压、电流增益截止频率和最大振荡频率分别达到510mS/mm,605mA/mm,-1.8V,110GHz及72GHz,为进一步研究高性能GaAs基MHEMT器件奠定了基础.     

Double-Layer Resist Films for Submicrometer Electron-Beam Lithography

This paper describes a double-layer resist-film technique for submicrometer electron-beam lithography. The results of computer simulation and lithography experiments carried out on PMMA/MPR (LO/HI) and MPR/PMMA (HI/LO) double-layer films are reported in full detail. It is shown that an undercut profile suitable for the lift-off processing can be reproducibly obtained by the use of the LO/HI structure over a wide range of electron-beam exposure dose, while the HI/LO structure is of great advantage in the fabrication of lift-off metal gates with a mushroom-like cross section.