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Nanoimprint Lithography

Posted by michael on from the cookie-cutter dept.

An anonymous submitter writes "According to BBC News, researchers at Princeton have developed a die-stamp method for chip fabs. The Princeton site claims they've got to 10nm already. The professor in charge has told BBC News Online that they're '20 years ahead of Moore's Law.' Dubious claims aside, it looks like a handy way to bring down prices even if it doesn't improve ultimate top speed."

3 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Nanoimprint Lithography by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've experimented with this technique a bit, and surprisingly it is very capable of replicating super tiny features. Surprising because the stamps are most commonly made from a flexible polymer material. They are very good at replicating tiny features from a master fabricated using electron beam lithography. One thing that we weren't able to solve was doing alignments between layers, since the stamps tend to be thick and hard to see through. But this is just an engineering issue that we didn't have the time or inclination to solve.

    I was just blown away that we were able to fabricate high fidelity microstructures using what basically amount to a rubber stamp!

  2. chicken and egg by g4dget · · Score: 3, Interesting
    You still have to make the mold itself, and since it is in actual mechanical contact with the substrate, it won't last anywhere near as long as an optical mask. So, you certainly have to make masters fairly regularly, and those processes may be disproportionately costly and time consuming (electron beam lithography, nanoprobes, etc.).

    Altogether, it looks like a nice process, but it's not immediately clear that it will help.

  3. Re:Environmentally friendly! by Zathrus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Been to? Hell, I used to work at one. Lovely fab safety classes -- "If you ignore the gas leak alarm, please try to die within 6 feet of the door. That's how long the pole hook is to drag your body out."

    Not to mention the horror stories about HF (watch your bones melt!), phosphine and other gasses which can kill you before you smell them (but the MSDS lists them as smelling like lemon... go figure), liquid scrubbers like Pirhana that meant no contacts (if the system backblasts the Pirhana would melt the contacts to your eyes), etc.

    That said, this process will only eliminate Photolithography... which is the process that uses the fewest of these amazingly nasty chemicals from what I recall. But I worked mostly with PVD/CVD and etchers, so I could be wrong about Photo's chemical usage.