Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), Research Triangle Park, N.C., announces that researchers it sponsors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have introduced new directed self-assembly (DSA) techniques that promise to help semiconductor manufacturers develop more advanced and less expensive components. The MIT research focuses on the issue of next-generation lithography in the semiconductor manufacturing process.
Photolithography at a 193 nanometer (nm) wavelength is currently used for semiconductor device manufacturing, but that is reaching its limit with feature sizes around 25 nm. Electron-beam lithography can produce smaller features and is used for mask making, one of the critical steps in semiconductor manufacturing. However, the throughput of electron-beam lithography is currently insufficient for sub-20 nm resolution patterning over large areas.
The MIT study demonstrates that complex patterns of lines, bends and junctions with feature sizes below 20 nm can be made by block copolymer self-assembly guided by a greatly simplified template. This study explained how to design the template to achieve a desired pattern. Electron-beam lithography was used to produce the template serially, while the block copolymer filled in the rest of the pattern in a parallel process. This hybrid process can be five or more times faster than writing the entire pattern by electron beam lithography.
The MIT study developed a simple way to design a template to achieve a specific block copolymer pattern over a large area. Although electron-beam lithography defines the template, other methods such as photolithography with trimming could be used to produce the templates.
