Patterning Under Pressure: Researchers Test a New Way to Manufacture Nanoscale Metal Patterns without the Need for a Vacuum

Seung Whan Lee, Hamidreza Zamani, Philip X.-L. Feng, and R. Mohan Sankaran

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 30, 010603 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3669523

Computers, cell phones, and many other electronic devices are made possible by tiny chips inscribed with nanoscale circuit patterns. Nanoscale patterns can also help scientists speed up chemical reactions and manipulate light, but the costs of producing the patterns can be high. Now a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, has demonstrated a new way to create tiny patterns that eliminates an expensive requirement of some other manufacturing processes: the vacuum. The team's new techniques could help pave the way to low-cost mass production of nanoscale patterned films at atmospheric pressure. Read More

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Keeping Up with Moore's Law Using Directed Self-assembly (DSA)

Chi-Chun Liu, Christopher J. Thode, Paulina A. Rincon Delgadillo, Gordon S. W. Craig, Paul F. Nealey, and Roel Gronheid

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 29, 06F203 (2011); http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.3644341

Moore's law, credited to computing pioneer Gordon Moore, states that the size of features on microchips shrinks by 70 percent every two years. This rapid pace has been made possible, in part, by improvements in the optical lithography techniques used to manufacture the chips. But now one of the most commonly used techniques, called 193i, has reached the limit of its resolution capabilities. Coming to the rescue, potentially, is a technique called directed self-assembly (DSA). While researchers continue to develop next-generation technology to take the place of 193i, DSA promises to be an inexpensive and relatively uncomplicated interim solution for making smaller microchip features. Read More

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Fabrication and performance of graphene nanoelectromechanical systems

Robert A. Barton, Jeevak Parpia, and Harold G. Craighead

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 29, 050801 (2011)
doi:10.1116/1.3623419

As a result of the recent progress in fabricating large-area graphene sheets, graphene-based mechanical devices have become vastly easier to manufacture and now show even greater promise for a range of applications. This article reviews the progress of resonant graphene nanoelectromechanical systems and the possible applications of this technology to signal processing, sensing, and other areas. After discussing recent advances in fabrication and measurement techniques that make graphene resonators a viable technology, the article presents what is known about the performance of graphene mechanical systems. The authors also highlight unresolved questions, such as the source of the dissipation in graphene resonators, and discuss the progress made on these issues to date. The authors conclude with a discussion of important future directions for graphene research and the applications for which graphene nanomechanical devices may be well suited. Read More

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Plasma-polymer interactions: A review of progress in understanding polymer resist mask durability during plasma etching for nanoscale fabrication

Gottlieb S. Oehrlein, Raymond J. Phaneuf, and David B. Graves

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 29, 010801 (2011)
doi:10.1116/1.3532949

Advanced lithographic patterning of organic resist images followed by the transfer of resist patterns using plasma etching techniques into semiconducting, dielectric, conductive materials or matter with other functionalities/properties are the basis of the information technology, microsystems, and other current or developing technologies. One of the least understood elements of this approach is the interaction of the plasma species with the organic molecules representing the image, and the chemical, morphological and topographic changes induced by these interactions in the macromolecules themselves and the macromolecule defined nanoscale features. In this review the authors examine published observations and the scientific understanding that is available on factors that control etching resistance and dimensional stability of resist templates in plasma etching environments. Both materials parameters, e.g. polymer structure and composition, and plasma properties, e.g. role of ions, plasma-generated UV radiation, neutrals and energy deposition are considered. Resist template deformations seen after plasma processing such as surface and line edge roughness are related to experimental and computational studies of plasma or beam induced surface and near-surface modifications of model resists and polymers.

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To charge or not to charge: 50 years of lithographic choices

R. Fabian Pease

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, C6A1 (2010);
doi:10.1116/1.3517607

Lithography is one of those technologies that quietly enabled the technological transformations of the last fifty years. If you are holding an electronic gadget, the probability is nearly 100% that lithography was used in making one or more components inside it. Many people have heard of Moore’s law but few know that lithography together with plasma etching has led the charge. For the last three decades, the leading research in these fields has been published in JVST A & B. In the Nov/Dec issue of JVST B Fabian Pease looks back and then forward to make us think about the challenges and changes awaiting the field of lithography: F. Pease, “To charge or not to charge: 50 years of lithographic choices.

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Phase Change Memory Technology

Geoffrey W. Burr, Matthew J. Breitwisch, Michele Franceschini, Davide Garetto, Kailash Gopalakrishnan, Bryan Jackson, Bülent Kurdi, Chung Lam, Luis A. Lastras, Alvaro Padilla, Bipin Rajendran, Simone Raoux, and Rohit S. Shenoy

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 223 (2010); doi:10.1116/1.3301579

The authors survey the current state of phase change memory (PCM), a nonvolatile solid-state memory technology built around the large electrical contrast between the highly resistive amorphous and highly conductive crystalline states in so-called phase change materials. PCM technology has made rapid progress in a short time, having passed older technologies in terms of both sophisticated demonstrations of scaling to small device dimensions, as well as integrated large-array demonstrators with impressive retention, endurance, performance, and yield characteristics. This article ranges all the way from basic physics to the device characteristics needed for characteristic applications, while also surveying ongoing materials science research, discussing fabrication and integration issues specific to PCM, and laying out the roles of intermediate resistance states, coding, and 3-D stacking in producing a potentially ultra-high-density yet highly-reliable new nonvolatile memory.

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Low-dimensional oxide nanostructures on metals: hybrid systems with novel properties

Falko P. Netzer, Francesco Allegretti, Svetlozar Surne

J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 28, 1 (2010); doi:10.1116/1.3268503

Low-dimensional oxide nanostructures supported on well-defined metal surfaces raise scientific interest both on a fundamental level and for potential technological applications. These systems may be regarded as artificially created hybrid materials with novel emergent properties, supporting new concepts of geometrical structure, electronics and magnetism, complex phase diagrams and a particular chemical reactivity.

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