"Advanced chipmaking technology, beyond EUV, edges Soft X-Ray lithography towards contending with Hyper-NA EUV. The 'B-EUV' approach employs novel resist chemistry to produce smaller microchips."
In a groundbreaking development for the semiconductor industry, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have created a toolbox of metal elements and organic ligands that enables the creation of custom resists tailored to specific lithography platforms. This toolbox, consisting of at least 10 metal elements and hundreds of organic ligands, is poised to revolutionize the way chips are manufactured.
One of the most significant advancements made by the team is the ability to etch very fine patterns onto semiconductor wafers using B-EUV light, a critical bottleneck in B-EUV technology that has long plagued the industry. The researchers' innovative approach has allowed them to find resist materials that can work with 6nm wavelength light, a significant step forward in the miniaturization of chips.
Zinc, traditionally known for its poor performance with 13.5nm EUV light, has shown remarkable effectiveness at shorter wavelengths, such as B-EUV. The researchers discovered that zinc can absorb B-EUV light and emit electrons, triggering chemical reactions in imidazole-based resists. This discovery has opened up new possibilities for chipmaking technologies.
However, while zinc may be well-suited for B-EUV, other metals might perform better at different wavelengths. The versatility offered by this breakthrough allows for the exploration of various metal-imidazole combinations, ensuring that the best pairings can be found for different lithography wavelengths.
The researchers' innovative method, called chemical liquid deposition (CLD), allows for the rapid testing of these combinations. CLD is a technique that grows thin, uniform films of amorphous zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (aZIFs) onto silicon wafers at a rate of 1nm per second. This speedy process makes it easier to discover the optimal metal-imidazole pairings for different lithography wavelengths.
In addition to its applications in semiconductor manufacturing, CLD can be used widely in non-semiconductor applications as well. The team at Johns Hopkins has also discovered rare-earth metals lanthanum and ytterbium that can be used with B-EUV light and resist materials suitable for chip manufacturing. They have developed a method to apply these metals onto silicon wafers using atomic layer deposition (ALD).
This breakthrough in chipmaking technology promises to pave the way for smaller, faster, and more efficient chips. The potential for this innovation extends beyond the semiconductor industry, with applications in various fields that require precise patterning and miniaturization. The future of technology looks brighter than ever with this groundbreaking development.
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