Sci-Tron Ltd continue to collaborate with the National Graphene Institute (NGI) to evaluate their novel resist materials for electron beam lithography.
Electron beam lithography (EBL) is used to fabricate nanoscale devices by patterning through the exposure of an electron beam sensitive resist. The University of Manchester has many years of experience and is expert in the use of EBL.
Semiconductor fabrication technology has developed at an extraordinary rate in recent decades but now faces several unprecedented challenges.
Continued miniaturisation places high demands on the resist materials integral to device manufacture. A major challenge is the etch performance of existing resists, which either prevents thin and deep features being written entirely, or where iterative write-develop-etch steps are required to achieve a high aspect ratio of the final features.
A team of Lithographers have been utilising the world leading ISO accredited facilities at the NGI to analyse some of these resist materials enabling features in silicon that are thinner and deeper with faster throughput.
Based on novel chemistry formulations, Sci-Tron provides a new approach to resist materials, to enable continued scaling of semiconductor device sizes and performance.
Dr Fredrik Schedin, Senior Experimental Officer at the NGI said:
“Being an extensive user of the most advanced commercially available electron beam resists from around the world it has been a pleasure to collaborate with the local team from Sci-Tron to develop resists with new cutting edge properties.”
“We have contributed with our excellent facilities as well as our extensive expertise in EBL and sample characterisation and we look forward to using these new resists in our own research.”
“The results are very promising and offer very high etch selectivity and resolution.”
Prof Stephen Yeates, Director & Executive Chairman, Sci-Tron Limited said:
“Sci-Tron have been able to utilise the ISO accredited expert facilities within the NGI to rapidly evaluate our novel resists. We now have an end to end process, from formulation to evaluation of our novel resist materials, all carried out to ISO requirements by our skilled team in a state of the art facility.”
“Our internal processes are standardised and reproducible and enable us to continue to supply our products to R&D labs and end users across the globe.”
“At this hugely exciting time for Sci-Tron, we value the continued collaboration and support we have with colleagues at the NGI.”
Advanced materials is one of The University of Manchester’s research beacons – examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet.
