Fabrication methods

Photolithography
Raja Sellappan
 Nanofabrication techniques
1. Top-down technique: Bulk material is etched until the
desired shape is achieved (removal of substance).
Examples: Lithography (photon, electron, focused ion-
beam)
2. Bottom-up technique: Adding atom by atom or molecules to
form nanostructures (addition of substance).
Examples: Self-assembly techniques, sol-gel, etc.

2
 Top-down Fabrication methods
Ball milling
Micromachining
Lithography
Laser ablation
LIGA
 Ball Milling
A process whereby powder particles are milled or grinded to a
smaller (nano) particles when they are subjected to high energy
collisions exerted by the balls in the rotating drum.

Ref: http://www.understandingnano.com/nanomaterial-synthesis-ball-
milling.html
 Ball Milling
Also called as Mechanical Attrition or mechanical
alloying.
Mechanical alloying: A solid-state powder
processing technique involving repeated cold Rotating drums
welding, fracturing, and re-welding of powder Tungsten carbide (WC)
or steel (Fe)
particles in a high-energy ball mill1.
Cold Welding: A process where materials are Important
joined/fused together without the use of heat or parameters
making molten state of materials (but under high Size and density of
the balls being
pressure).
used.
Repeated deformation can cause large reductions in Speed or rotation
grain size via the formation and organization of grain of drums.
boundaries within the powder particles. Materials to be
The process is done in controllable environment to milled should be
lighter than balls.
prevent oxidation and other chemical reactions
between the powder and the ball/drum of rotating
parts.
1: Wikipedia.org
 Ball Milling
Different components can be mechanically alloyed together
by cold welding to produce nanostructured alloys.
A nanometer dispersion of one phase in another can also be
achieved. Microstructures and phases produced in this way
can often be thermodynamically metastable.
Generally any form of mechanical deformation under shear
conditions and high strain rates can lead to the formation of
nanostructures, since energy is being continuously pumped
into crystalline structures to create lattice defects.
 Moores Law
The number of transistors incorporated in an
integrated circuit will double approximately for every 2
years

50 years back 2013

Intels 4004 CPU (10 micorn or Intels Ivy Bridge CPU (22 nm)
10000 nm) Billions of tri-gate transistors
2300 transistors
 Lithography
Lithos: Stones; Graphia: Writing
Lithography: Writing on stones or printing an
image.
Semiconductor lithography: Formation of
creating 3-D images on the silicon substrate*
using the patterns.
Different physical and chemical processes are
used to fabricate an Integrated Circuit (IC).
IC manufacturing process: Film deposition,
patterning, semiconductor doping (ion
implantation)

*Substrate: Base material on which image/pattern is formed.

 Lithography
Types of Lithography
1. Photolithography [PL] : Ultra Violet[UV],
Visible light, X-ray)
2. Electron beam or E-beam lithography [EBL]
3. Focused Ion beam [FIB]
 Photolithography
An optical process by which a light sensitive polymer
called photoresist is exposed (through a photomask )
and developed to form a 3-D image on the surface of
a substrate.
Photons are used to illuminate in parallel to the
photoresist in order to make desired pattern on it.
All part of photoresist is exposed simultaneously to
light.
Photons used can be visible or UV light , or X-ray
beam.
 Photolithography
General process

http://spie.org/x32391.xml
 Photolithographic process
1. Substrate preparation: Aimed at improving adhesion of photoresists to the
substrate. Process includes substrate cleaning, adhesion promoters,
dehydration baking, etc.
2. Photoresist coating: Photoresist is spin coated on the substrate. Spin coating
results in a thin, uniform coating of photoresist with specific or controllable
thickness.

Spin coating of a photoresist

1. Prebaking: Spin-coating is subsequently followed by a soft-baking (low
temperature) of the substrate on a hot-plate to remove solvents and improve
adhesion properties.
 Photolithographic process
Alignment and Exposure

A photomask (master pattern) is used to expose a photoresist.

Contact printing: Offers high resolution but damage of mask is high resulting
in low yield.
Proximity printing: The damage of mask is reduced but the resolution limit is
low.
Projection printing: Better method to expose a photoresist through a lens
along with photomask. Increases resolution and reduces the mask damage.
 Photolithographic process
Developer
Positive resist Negative resist
UV light
Etch Etch Etch
Etch mask

Resist Resist Resist

Silicon Silicon Silicon

Resist Resist
Silicon Silicon

Positive resist: The resist that is exposed to light undergoes chemical reaction and
can be dissolved or removed easily by a developer (solution).
Negative resist: The resist that is exposed to light undergoes chemical reaction and
can not be dissolved or removed by a developer. But the rest of the non-exposed
resist can be removed easily by a developer.
 Photoresist
Photoresist is typically polymers, metal halide or oxide.

Positive resist Negative resist

Upon illumination, the photoresist undergoes chemical

reaction (cross-linking or chain scission polymer) and thus
altering the solubility or composition of the exposed resist.
 Photolithographic process
Development
Developer: Used to remove the exposed part of the resist (positive) or
unexposed part of the resist (negative).
After developing, the resist can be used as a template or as an
etch mask for subsequent transfer of pattern to the substrate
through etching or deposition.
 Photolithographic process
Pattern transfer

Pattern transfer is achieved in 3 different ways as follows.

(i) Etching (Selective removal of materials): Either wet (Chemical
solution) or dry (plasma) etch is used to transfer pattern to the
substrate from the photomask.
(ii) Additive (Deposition) processes: Deposit a new layer on the open
area where the resist is removed by a developer.
(iii) Doping: Ion implantation is used to dope the material.
 Photolithography
Important parameters
Resolution: How small features you can make using PL. It is
approximately half-of the wavelength of the light used.
Currently close to 50 nm size* can be fabricated with PL using
extreme UV (EUV) light (193 nm and 248 nm) from excimer
lasers but it is quite expensive. Normal resolution is ~200 nm
and above.
Repeatability or registration: Defines how one can align the
patterns repeatability on the previous produced patterns.
Throughput: How one can produce patterns in a cost-effective
time. i.e. how many wafers can be patterned in a given time in
cost-effective manner.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photolithography
 PL Resolution

http://www.southalabama.edu/engineering/ece/faculty/akhan/Course
s/EE439-539-fall07/Lecture%208-Lithography-chapter5.pdf
 Diffraction
Diffraction is a phenomenon (exhibited by light as a wave) of bending of
light waves when they encounter an obstacle or slit that is comparable to
the size of the wavelength.
After the waves pass through the slit(s), they undergo both constructive
and destructive interference resulting in bright and dark patterns.

Slit Near-field (Fresnel diffraction) Far-field (Fraunhofer diffraction)

Plane waves

https://www.dssc.ece.cmu.edu/news/seminars/lunch05/.../
041205.pdf
 Near-field Diffraction
(Fresnel Diffraction)

Distance of mask from a photoresist

https://www.dssc.ece.cmu.edu/news/seminars/lunch05/.../
041205.pdf
 Far-field diffraction
(Fraunhofer diffraction)

Resolution R: How small features you can make.

0.61l 0.61l
R= =
nsinq NA
n = refractive index l
q = Angle of light collected cone
Wmin = K
NA
l = wavelength of the illuminated light
K = Constant
NA=Numerical aperture = nsin q https://www.dssc.ece.cmu.edu/news/seminars/lunch05/..
041205.pdf
 Diffraction-limited photolithographic
process

http://www-
mtl.mit.edu/researchgroups/hackman/6152J/SP_2004/lectu