No Arabic abstract
Despite the fact that the resolution of conventional contact/proximity lithography can reach feature sizes down to ~0.5-0.6 micrometers, the accurate control of the linewidth and uniformity becomes already very challenging for gratings with periods in the range of 1-2 {mu}m. This is particularly relevant for the exposure of large areas and wafers thinner than 300{mu}m. If the wafer or mask surface is not fully flat due to any kind of defects, such as bowing/warpage or remaining topography of the surface in case of overlay exposures, noticeable linewidth variations or complete failure of lithography step will occur. We utilized the newly developed Displacement Talbot lithography to pattern gratings with equal lines and spaces and periods in the range of 1.0 to 2.4 {mu}m. The exposures in this lithography process do not require contact between the mask and the wafer, which makes it essentially insensitive to surface planarity and enables exposures with very high linewidth uniformity on thin and even slightly deformed wafers. We demonstrated pattern transfer of such exposures into Si substrates by reactive ion etching using the Bosch process. An etching depth of 30 {mu}m or more for the whole range of periods was achieved, which corresponds to very high aspect ratios up to 60:1. The application of the fabricated gratings in phase contrast x-ray imaging is presented.
Ultrafast lasers have revolutionized material processing, opening a wealth of new applications in many areas of science. A recent technology that allows the cleaving of transparent materials via non-ablative processes is based on focusing and translating a high-intensity laser beam within a material to induce a well-defined internal stress plane. This then enables material separation without debris generation. Here, we use a non-diffracting beam engineered to have a transverse elliptical spatial profile to generate high aspect ratio elliptical channels in glass of dimension 350 nm x 710 nm, and subsequent cleaved surface uniformity at the sub-micron level.
A digital etching method was proposed to achieve excellent control of etching depth. The digital etching characteristics of p+ Si and Si0.7Ge0.3 using the combinations of HNO3 oxidation and BOE oxide removal processes were studied. Experiments showed that oxidation saturates with time due to low activation energy. A physical model was presented to describe the wet oxidation process with nitric acid. The model was calibrated with experimental data and the oxidation saturation time, final oxide thickness, and selectivity between Si0.7Ge0.3 and p+ Si were obtained. The digital etch of laminated Si0.7Ge0.3/p+ Si was also investigated. The depth of the tunnels formed by etching SiGe layers between two Si layers was found in proportion to digital etching cycles. And oxidation would also saturate and the saturated relative etched amount per cycle (REPC) was 0.5 nm (4 monolayers). A corrected selectivity calculation formula was presented. The oxidation model was also calibrated with Si0.7Ge0.3/p+ Si stacks, and selectivity from model was the same with the corrected formula. The model can also be used to analyze process variations and repeatability. And it could act as a guidance for experiment design. Selectivity and repeatability should make a trade-off.
Although, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) is a widely used material in numerous applications, such as micro- or nanofabrication, the method of its selective etching has not been known up to now. In this work authors present two methods of etching the pure, additive-free and cured PDMS as a positive resist material. To achieve the chemical modification of the polymer necessary for selective etching, energetic ions were used. We created 7 um and 45 um thick PDMS layers and patterned them by a focused proton microbeam with various, relatively large fluences. In this paper authors demonstrate that 30 wt% Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) or 30 wt% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 70 oC temperature etch proton irradiated PDMS selectively, and remove the chemically sufficiently modified areas. In case of KOH development, the maximum etching rate was approximately 3.5 um/minute and it occurs at about 7.5*10^15 ion*cm-2. In case of NaOH etching the maximum etching rate is slightly lower, 1.75 um/minute and can be found at the slightly higher fluence of 8.75*10^15 ion*cm-2. These results are of high importance since up to this time it has not been known how to develop the additive-free, cross-linked poly(dimethylsiloxane) in lithography as a positive tone resist material.
Using the Greens dyad technique based on cuboidal meshing, we compute the electromagnetic field scattered by metal nanorods with high aspect ratio. We investigate the effect of the meshing shape on the numerical simulations. We observe that discretizing the object with cells with aspect ratios similar to the objects aspect ratio improves the computations, without degrading the convergency. We also compare our numerical simulations to finite element method and discuss further possible improvements.
In this work authors present for the first time how to apply the additive-free, cured PDMS as a negative tone resist material, demonstrate the creation of PDMS microstructures and test the solvent resistivity of the created microstructures. The PDMS layers were 45 um and 100 um thick, the irradiations were done with a focused proton microbeam with various fluences. After irradiation, the samples were etched with sulfuric acid that removed the unirradiated PDMS completely but left those structures intact that received high enough fluences. The etching rate of the unirradiated PDMS was also determined. Those structures that received at least 7.5*10^15 ion*cm-2 fluence did not show any signs of degradation even after 19 hours of etching. As a demonstration, 45 um and 100 um tall, high aspect ratio, good quality, undistorted microstructures were created with smooth and vertical sidewalls. The created microstructures were immersed into numerous solvents and some acids to test their compatibility. It was found that the unirradiated PDMS cannot, while the irradiated PDMS microstructures can resist to chloroform, n-hexane, toluene and sulfuric acid. Hydrogen fluoride etches both the unirradiated and the irradiated PDMS.