Manufacturers and researchers using resist materials in nanofabrication are reaching the limits of the devices that can be constructed with current materials.
A major challenge is the etch performance of existing resists, which either prevents thin and deep features being written entirely, or where multiple write-develop-etch steps are needed to achieve a high aspect ratio of the final features.
Such thin deep features are required in the fabrication of key structures including masks for Extreme UV (EUV) lithography; heat sinks for heat dissipation in FIN-FETs. Such features may be written into silicon (e.g. as FIN-FETs) or into III-V semiconductors (e.g. in photonic devices) or into metals (e.g. as cooling fins).
A secondary problem is that many manufacturers do not wish to undertake significant resist development themselves, or even to undertake significant in-house testing, but wish to use new better performing resists without changing their processes.
Sci-Tron Ltd offers a new approach to advanced resist materials to enable continued scaling of semiconductor device sizes and performance. Sci-Tron Ltd produce resists that out-perform industry standards.
Sci-Tron is addressing the market need of commercialising resists for multi-sector applications by designing and building a flexible manufacturing capability and facility which produces bespoke variations of resists used to write structures at the nanoscale using Electron Beam Lithography (EBL) and Photo Lithography (PL) with improved performance w.r.t. state-of-the-art.
Sci-Tron has the capability to produce advanced resist materials and ancillary products for EBL and PL; the resists provide routes to new device architectures based on unique etch selectivity combined with ease of use; allowing industry to develop innovative products and new applications.
Sci-Tron also offers bespoke resists, working with end-users to combine the high performance of Sci-Tron technology with customers’ existing processes; we also have the ability to work with end-users to design new resists to enable fabrication of unique devices.
The under-pinning technology and approach, developed by the world leading research groups led by Prof Richard Winpenny, Dr Scott Lewis and Prof Stephen Yeates, is covered by a suite of global patents and undisclosed know-how.
The fundamental work has been published in peer reviewed journal Angewandte Chemie {Angew. Chem. 2017, 129, 6853–6856}.
Sci-Tron won the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Emerging Technologies prize for Materials in 2016.
Sci-Tron Ltd, currently supported by a competitive peer reviewed, UK government InnovateUK award, have the capability to manufacture their novel materials to required industry standards in ISO accredited facilities.
Sci-Tron resists are evaluated at the ISO accredited facilities at the National Graphene Institute in Manchester.
Sci-Tron have started to generate revenue through the manufacture and sale of evaluation scale material to partners in North America and Europe. This has enabled the company to develop the capability to ship product overseas and meet all export / import controls.
Through collaborations with early adopters and manufacturers, Sci-Tron’s aim is to commercialise our resists for use in EBL for fabrication in III-V semiconductor and EUV photomask production and PL resists for fabrication at 365nm.
Sci-Tron is developing resist technology with unique etch selectivity and high aspect ratio performance, alongside excellent resolution, line-edge roughness and write speed. We seek early adopters of this technology, which will allow fabrication of nanoscale devices into a range of substrates.
Sci-Tron resists etch over one hundred times more slowly than silicon, even at narrow pitches, and therefore allow much higher aspect ratio structures to be fabricated, which have important consequences.
Sci-Tron also offer bespoke resist development, working with end-users to combine the high performance of the resist technology with customers’ existing processes, and to design new resists to enable fabrication of unique devices.
