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Self Assembly is a very important property of Nano Technology materials, it is ...
SRC clears path to 14-nm with directed self-assembly
R Colin Johnson
5/24/2012 11:56 AM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore.—A novel self-assembly technique previously demonstrated only in the lab for regular test patterns, has been perfected for creating the irregular patterns necessary to fabricate real semiconductors down to 14-nanometers, according to researchers funded by Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC).
By solving one of the outstanding lithographic problems facing further scaling—the tiny contact holes that connect semiconductors to their substrate—researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated working circuits at 22-nanometer and a clear path to 14-nanometers, as well as a bee-line on the chemistry developments needed to scale to single digit sizes.
"Others have demonstrated self-assembly of regular patterns," said Philip Wong, lead researcher at Stanford for the SRC-guided research. "But this is the first time that directed self-assembly (DSA) has been successfully applied to create the critical contact holes needed for standard cell libraries on future sub-22-nanometer chips."
The semiconductors fabricated by Wong's group were real working circuits at 22-nanometer, not just test structures, demonstrating that DSA can be used for any irregular pattern required for future logic or memory chips. The group also demonstrated that they could heal imperfections in patterns and maintain high resolutions and ultra-fine features consistently across a wafer.
"At SRC, we view Wong's work as the critical breakthrough needed to pattern contact hole patterns at advanced nodes, which is one of the most difficult problems the industry is facing today," said Bob Havemann, director of nanomanufacturing sciences at SRC (Research Triangle, N.C.). "Wong was also able to achieve the patterning using environmentally green materials, which is another obstacle that needed to be surmounted."
Stanford's technique works by first using standard lithography techniques to pattern the general area where the contact hole will need to be, using features than can be more than twice the size of the final contact holes. For instance, if pair of contact holes been to be spaced 22 nanometers apart, then the template might be used to etch an oblong indentation that is 50 nanometers long. Then, in the second step, a self-assembling block-copolymer is deposited on the wafer, where it only activates within the indented areas. By carefully formulating the two parts of the co-polymer, it self assembles into precisely the placement pattern required to accurately etch closely spaced side-by-side 22 nanometer holes.
"Our current demonstration showed we could etch irregular patterns of 22 nanometer holes," said Linda He Yi, a researcher working on Wong’s team. "But our current copolymer can handle etching holes in patterns as small as 14 nanometers."
The solvents used in the coating and etching process were polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether acetates, which are considered a green alternative to conventional solvents. Other SRC projects underway are aiming to extend the green directed self-assembly technique to single-digit sizes below 10-nanometer, by perfecting different copolymer formulations.
Additional funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.
By solving one of the outstanding lithographic problems facing further scaling—the tiny contact holes that connect semiconductors to their substrate—researchers at Stanford University have demonstrated working circuits at 22-nanometer and a clear path to 14-nanometers, as well as a bee-line on the chemistry developments needed to scale to single digit sizes.
"Others have demonstrated self-assembly of regular patterns," said Philip Wong, lead researcher at Stanford for the SRC-guided research. "But this is the first time that directed self-assembly (DSA) has been successfully applied to create the critical contact holes needed for standard cell libraries on future sub-22-nanometer chips."
The semiconductors fabricated by Wong's group were real working circuits at 22-nanometer, not just test structures, demonstrating that DSA can be used for any irregular pattern required for future logic or memory chips. The group also demonstrated that they could heal imperfections in patterns and maintain high resolutions and ultra-fine features consistently across a wafer.
"At SRC, we view Wong's work as the critical breakthrough needed to pattern contact hole patterns at advanced nodes, which is one of the most difficult problems the industry is facing today," said Bob Havemann, director of nanomanufacturing sciences at SRC (Research Triangle, N.C.). "Wong was also able to achieve the patterning using environmentally green materials, which is another obstacle that needed to be surmounted."Stanford's technique works by first using standard lithography techniques to pattern the general area where the contact hole will need to be, using features than can be more than twice the size of the final contact holes. For instance, if pair of contact holes been to be spaced 22 nanometers apart, then the template might be used to etch an oblong indentation that is 50 nanometers long. Then, in the second step, a self-assembling block-copolymer is deposited on the wafer, where it only activates within the indented areas. By carefully formulating the two parts of the co-polymer, it self assembles into precisely the placement pattern required to accurately etch closely spaced side-by-side 22 nanometer holes.
"Our current demonstration showed we could etch irregular patterns of 22 nanometer holes," said Linda He Yi, a researcher working on Wong’s team. "But our current copolymer can handle etching holes in patterns as small as 14 nanometers."
The solvents used in the coating and etching process were polyethylene glycol monomethyl ether acetates, which are considered a green alternative to conventional solvents. Other SRC projects underway are aiming to extend the green directed self-assembly technique to single-digit sizes below 10-nanometer, by perfecting different copolymer formulations.
Additional funding for the project was provided by the National Science Foundation.
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any1
5/24/2012 4:06 PM EDT
This is good stuff with great promise, but of course this is still a nascent technology that will not be manufacturing ready in time to stop Moore's law from stalling in the next few years. Perhaps if we hadn't spent so much money on EUV lithography then resources could have been made available to accelerate directed self-assembly technology years ago.
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Les_Slater
5/24/2012 5:03 PM EDT
Moore's law needs to be updated. Our real concern is work done per given real estate per unit time. There are power and cooling issues too.
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R_Colin_Johnson
5/24/2012 5:55 PM EDT
Directed self-assembly is not the whole answer, but it is an answer and its one that has the potential to touch other aspects of extending lithography down to sub-wavelength dimensions. I'm excited about what SRC and other researcher groups developing advanced copolymer formulations may be cooking up :)
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resistion
5/25/2012 10:58 PM EDT
Self-assembly is an indication of natural molecular scales in polymers, good to note. Why ~20 nm?
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R_Colin_Johnson
5/26/2012 4:29 PM EDT
The particular co-polymer here produces the 20-nm features, with other formulations being developed for single-digit geometries.
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wilber_xbox
5/26/2012 2:01 PM EDT
are there any buyers for this technology? DSA has been around for some time now so i missed the main advantage of this method over previous methods.
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R_Colin_Johnson
5/26/2012 4:28 PM EDT
SRC claims this is the first production ready use of directed self assembly--that previous demonstrations were just test structures, but that Stanford's technique is ready for 22-nm today, can be extended as-is to 14-nm, and is being developed for single-digit geometries by formulating new co-polymers.
"Directed self-assembly (DSA)—a technology based on a concept that was virtually unknown outside of research labs a few years ago..."
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4213705/Momentum-builds-for-directed-self-assembly
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resistion
5/27/2012 2:13 AM EDT
Can 7 nm lines 7 nm apart reliably carry electrical signals? Not much room for barrier layers, even.
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R_Colin_Johnson
5/27/2012 7:14 AM EDT
We are fast approaching the lower limit, since the crystalline lattice of silicon, for instance, has a spacing of about 0.5 nm. But scientists who work with these tiny dimensions call .5nm, 5 angstroms, and the atoms themselves are much much smaller--measured in hundreds of picometers (1pm = 1/100th of an angstrom).
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resistion
5/27/2012 12:58 PM EDT
That's an important perspective. Silicon nitride is at 0.8 nm, only 1/20 of 16 nm!
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Diogenes53
5/27/2012 1:21 PM EDT
Sadly, yet another shiny penny, another in the 30+ year search for an alternative to optical. Not sure whether this is due to ADD on the part of lithographers, or simply the "nice from far but from nice" syndrome of those without perspective. We have poured billions into X-ray (a.k.a. EUV) without commercial success. What makes anyone think you can start with yet another shiny penny at the 10nm node? Its bizarre. The only technologies that can succeed are those built on the optical lithography infrastructure. There is only one.
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R_Colin_Johnson
5/29/2012 4:09 PM EDT
Immersion?
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kinnar
5/27/2012 3:15 PM EDT
Self Assembly is a very important property of Nano Technology materials, it is good to know that Directed Self Assembly will be helpful in semiconductor manufacturing process as well.
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