Maskless Lithography for Fabrication of Microelectronics with 100 nm Features

The proposed Phase II program will produce in 1 year a low-cost, flexible, maskless-lithography tool, the Model 150A, capable of patterning arbitrary-geometries at minimum half-pitch features of 150 nm. This tool will meet the unique needs of DOD and ASIC practitioners for custom circuits, as well as the needs of a growing community in nanoscale science and engineering. The Model 150A, will employ an array of 1000 Fresnel phase-zone-plates, a 400 nm wavelength laser source, a spatial-light modulator, a laser-interferometer-controlled stage, and data handling suitable for a throughput of 1/2 to several wafers per hour. The Model 150A will be marketed to government, industrial and academic research institutions at a small fraction (~1/50) of the projected cost of a competitive tool being developed in Europe. The Model 150A will provide circuit designers with greater flexibility and enable them to maximize their creativity by eliminating the constraints imposed by mask-based lithography. The 1-year Phase-II SBIR, along with about $2M of external investment, will provide all the elements needed for LumArray to commence manufacturing and marketing the Model 150A, leading to a profitable company in the 2nd or 3rd year of operation.