This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to develop a product for a reversible contrast enhancement layer (R-CEL) using semiconductor nanocrystalline materials. The R-CEL technology, if successfully developed, will enable finer resolution optical lithography postponing the need for more expensive techniques such as electron beam or x-ray lithography. R-CEL technology will help to extend the diffraction limit facing optical lithography by enabling double exposure techniques to be used for pattern definition.
The use of R-CEL with double exposure will increase the capability of optical lithography thus enabling the extension of Moore's Law without the need to switch to more expensive alternatives. It will also help restore the technological competitiveness of domestic vendors in the lithography industry. The SBIR project will also advance the understanding of semiconductor nanocrystal characteristics including detailed absorption and recombination processes and the effect of nanocrystal surface conditions on dispersion with polymers. This information will be valuable in other semiconductor nanocrystal UV applications including optical storage, UV light sources and detectors.
During this NSF SBIR Phase II project titled "R-CEL for DUV Lithography" (Award No. 0724417), Pixelligent Technologies have explored various aspect of applying wide bandgap semiconductor nanocrystals to advance the current state of optical lithography. Optical lithography is the main driving force behind the electronic industry. Advancement in optical lithography enables smaller and smaller features to be printed in an Integrated Circuit (IC), dramatically improve its complexity and functionality, at the same time, maintain or reduce its cost and power consumption. The unique physical properties of semiconductor nanocrystals provided great opportunities for them to be incorporated into the lithography process to further improve the performance of optical lithography. During the Phase II project, Pixelligent has developed the synthesis and surface modification procedures of a multiple semiconductor nanocrystals. Pixelligent has also successfully developed procedures to disperse them into a variety of polymers, including many lithographic polymers to form nanocomposites. These nanocomposites were spin coated onto quartz wafer and their optical properties measured. During the Phase II project, Pixelligent has also built a fully automated optical pump-probe system and a Z-Scan system using a 193 nm excimer laser. These systems were used to probe the non-linear optical properties of the nanocrystals and the nano-composites, and the results were critical in helping us understand theses nanocrystals and nanocomposites. And finally, a Phase IIA supplement award was carried in collaboration with Dr. Kimani Stancil at Howard University to explore the possibility of using Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) and Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (GISAXS) techniques as characterization and inspection tools to evaluate and understand the nanocrystal/polymer nanocomposite thin films. As a direct result of previous R&D efforts performed at Pixelligent, including the NSF SBIR Phase II project, Pixelligent has developed processes to produce and small monodisperse nanocrystals with well controlled surface chemistry. These nanocrystals demonstrate excellent optical properties from deep UV to visible spectral range and reactive ion etch (RIE) resistance under different environments. In late 2009 Pixelligent has entered into a Joint Development Agree (JDA) with Brewer Science, a leading specialty polymer provider for electronic industry, to scale-up the production of these nanocrystals and nanocomposites and market them as materials as hardmask materials for DUV lithography and high refractive index coatings for high brightness LEDs. Pixelligent, together with Brewer Science, have been awarded a $8.4M, three year Technology Innovation Program TIP award from NIST to scale-up the production of these oxide nanocrystals. Pixelligent is also collaborating with several other industrial partners to develop applications for these nancomposites in other applications. Since the beginning of Phase II project, Pixelligent has grown from 5 full time employees to 15 full time employees, and have received more than $10M government grants and $6M in private investment, all centered around our proprietary nanocrystals and nanocomposites. The company has moved into a start-of-art manufacturing facility in Baltimore City to accommodate our rapid growth in the near future. The company is expecting to double the headcount in the next year or so. Our first product, the hardmask materials for DUV lithography will be sent out for customer testing by the end of this year. Also, on the educational front, the collaboration with Howard has provided Dr. Kimani Stancil with the resources needed to start a new lab in the Physics department and offered valuable opportunities to his graduate students to be exposed to various of aspects of state-of-art nanotechnologies.
