This grant will allow UIC to purchase a high resolution e-beam lithography equipment (Raith 150) with a minimum of 50nm patterning capability guaranteed and sub-10nm patterning has been demonstrated. UIC will set it up in a class 100 clean room bay devoted exclusively to lithography. The reasons for the selection of this particular machine will be elaborated on in section 3c "Description of Research Instrumentation and Needs," and are the patterning performance, metrology capability, ease of use by a diverse population, purchase price, and annual maintenance cost. This machine will benefit 6 other members of the UIC consortium (Notre Dame, NWU, Purdue, UC, IIT, and NIU) as well as a large corporate base around UIC and a national laboratory. Basic science and engineering research are entering a new era where fundamental knowledge of nanoscale materials including magnetic, semiconductors, superconductors, electronic devices, bio-materials, fluids, and related interface phenomena will be essential for the design of advanced devices and engineered systems. A great deal of basic research and innovation will be needed as devices shrink below the natural length scales like the size of the minimum ferromagnetic domain (100-1000 nm), the superconducting coherence length (~ 1-100 nm), or the characteristic size of bio molecules. The equipment will enable these programs and many more that can not be described here due to space limitations:
UIC, Nanomagentism studies, and nanopatterning Note Dame, Nanoelectronics and high-speed circuits and devices lIT, Nanoelectronics NIU, Nanoelectronics Purdue, NEMS for the Direct DNA Characterization and Sequencing at the Molecular Level NWU, Two dimensional Photonoic band gap materials for biomolecular detection UC, Electronically controlled substrates for mechanistic studies of cell adhesion and migration.
The additional applications mentioned are the 23 letters of support received to support e--beam lithography development at UIC that are in the supplementary documents section. These are letters of interest and intent from 10 companies, and from 9 non-profit institutions. The nano-lithography system will be a part of University of Illinois at Chicago's Micro/Nanofabrication Applications Laboratory (MAL). The MAL has become a regional user facility for the Chicago area and in the last 3.5 years it has increased its user base 7 fold with over 50% of the users coming from outside of UIC. This rapid growth is due to the MAL offering open and inexpensive access, training, and guidance on a versatile set of fabrication and characterization equipment. The addition of e-beam lithography to the PIs facilities will allow them to greatly increase the participation of UIC and the surrounding community in the national nano initiative.
