E-beam lithography for micro-/nanofabrication

Abstract

Electron beam lithography (EBL) is one of the tools of choice for writing micro- and nanostructures on a wide variety of materials. This is largely due to the fact that modern EBL machines are capable of writing nanometer-sized structures on areas up to mm(2). The aim of this contribution is to give technical and practical backgrounds in this extremely flexible nanofabrication technique.

Nanoparticle assembly enabled by EHD-printed monolayers

“…Developing a reliable nanoscale resolution printer for manufacturing may rely on the NanoDrip method of EHD, which has shown a limited printing velocity of 1-10 μm s − 1 for 500 nm metal networks 17 . This would have a hugely detrimental impact on the patterning time, whereas the 3-4 mm s − 1 demonstrated in this paper compares favorably to the upper speeds of 10 mm s − 1 utilized in electron-beam lithography 36 . The use of emerging methods of EHD printing, such as combinations with AFM-capillaries for closed-loop nanoscale nozzle-surface separation 37,38 , would greatly improve the resolution we show here for continuous printing.…”

Review on Micro- and Nanolithography Techniques and their Applications

“…When a precursor gas such as tungsten hexacarbonyl (W(CO 6 )) is added into the chamber, the precursor gas is hit by the focused-ion beam leading to gas decomposition which leaves a non-volatile component (tungsten) on the surface [33]. In terms of specifications, the resolution of electron beam and focused ion beam lithography techniques are of the order of 5 -20 nm [2,23] due to ultra-short wavelengths of electron/ion beams in the order of a few nanometers. However, the lack of throughput limits their applications within research and mask fabrication.…”

“…This patterned photo-resist can be used as a protective layer in subsequent etching or deposition processes to build topography on the substrate. 2-3 μm [22] very high typical patterning in laboratory level and production of various MEMS devices Photolithography (projection printing) a few tens of nanometers (37 nm) [2] high -very high (60-80 wafers/hr) [1] commercial products and advanced electronics including advanced ICs [1] , CPU chips Electron beam lithography < 5 nm [23] very low [1,3] (8 hrs to write a chip pattern) [1] masks [3] and ICs production, patterning in R&D including photonic crystals, channels for nanofluidics [23] Focused ion beam lithography 20 nm with a minimal lateral dimension of 5 nm [2] very low [3] patterning in R&D including hole arrays [125,134] , bull's-eye structure [132] , plasmonic lens [137] Soft lithography a few tens of nanometers to micrometers [2,13] (30 nm) [2] high LOCs for various applications [13,96] Nanoimprint lithography 6-40 nm [14,15,18] high (> 5 wafers/hr) [1] bio-sensors [17] , bioelectronics [18] , LOCs: nano channels, nano wires [97,102,104] Dip-pen lithography a few tens of nanometers [39,40,43] very low -low, possibly medium [39] bio-electronics [43] , biosensors [40] , gas sensors [42] There are three forms of photolithography: contact printing, proximity printing and projection printing as schematically illustrated in …”

“…Electron beam lithography [22,23] utilizes an accelerated electron beam focusing on an electron-sensitive resist [24,25] to make an exposure. Subsequently, this electron-beam spot with a diameter as small as a couple of nanometers is scanned on the surface of resist in a dot-by-dot fashion to generate patterns in sequence (Fig.…”

“…The forms of masked lithography include photolithography [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], soft lithography [11][12][13], and nanoimprint lithography [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. On the other hand, maskless lithography, such as electron beam lithography [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], focused ion beam lithography [30][31][32][33], and scanning probe lithography [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44], fabricates arbitrary patterns by a serial writing without the use of masks. These techniques create patterns in a serial manner which allows an ultrahigh-resolution patterning of arbitrary shapes with a minimum feature size as small as a few nanometers.…”