SEPTEMBER 22, 2006, 11:00 A.M., TI Auditorium (Directions)
GRANT WILLSON
Rashid Engineering Regent Chair,
The Departments of Chemistry and
Chemical Engineering,
The University of Texas, Austin
Advances in Nanostructure Fabrication Technology
ABSTRACT: The drive to manufacture semiconductor devices with ever smaller features has inspired amazing improvements in imaging materials science and technology for over 3 decades. Billions of dollars have been spent in efforts to devise methods and materials that enable the printing of ever smaller transistors. The most advanced microelectronic devices in full scale production have minimum printed features in the range of 60-90nm and fully functional transistors with 10nm gates have been characterized. Continued scaling of CMOS devices is projected to occur by introducing immersion lithography in various forms, adaptation of double exposure processes and ultimately, EUV exposure. The lithographic process becoming extremely expensive and the cost of that process threatens the structure and the economics of the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Imprint lithography, a much lower cost, high resolution patterning technology is emerging as a potential adjunct to photolithography. It is now recognized on the ITRS roadmap. Imprint lithography loosely defines a set of techniques that include several forms of embossing; stamping and molding that show great promise as low cost methods for producing nanostructures. These techniques take many different forms, each of which has it’s own special applicability. The technique we call Step and Flash Imprint Lithography (S-FIL) is designed to allow the fabrication of high resolution, high aspect ratio images that can be aligned with precision. The process accurately replicates arbitrary shapes as small as 20nm (below) and structures smaller than 10 nanometers in width have been faithfully reproduced. The state of high resolution imaging processes for production of devices with nanoscale features will be presented with emphasis on the Step and Flash Imprint Lithography Process.
BIO: Dr. Willson received his BS and PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and an MS degree in Organic Chemistry from San Diego State University. He came to the University of Texas from his position as an IBM Fellow and Manager of the Polymer Science and Technology area at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. He has a joint appointment in the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and holds the Rashid Engineering Regents Chair. Dr. Willson is the co-author of more than 400 journal publications, editor and author of several books and co-inventor on more than 25 issued patents. Dr. Willson’s research can be characterized as the design and synthesis of functional organic materials with emphasis on materials for microelectronics. Every advanced semiconductor “chip” that is produced today is made using materials that were developed by students! His research group currently includes 5 postdoctoral students and visiting scientists, 12 graduate students and five undergraduates. The research work is supported by grants from both government and industry. Dr Willson is a member of The National Academy of Engineering and his research work has been recognized by numerous awards.
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