Sub-Wavelength Lithography Employing Phase Masks

Luminescent Technologies is developing a disruptive innovation to improve sub-wavelength lithography for semiconductor manufacturing. The company has developed a new approach for optimizing photomasks as an inverse problem. It is a radical departure fromexisting resolution enhancement technologies that merely perturb the original design. Unlike existing techniques, this technology will consider the full realm of possible mask patterns which can diffract light in such a way as to print the desiredcircuit. In general, the optimal mask pattern will not resemble the original design; to the eye, it will appear more like a hologram. By using an inverse problem methodology to find the optimal mask, we can create masks which provide far better resolutionand higher yields than any other competing technology. For phase I, we intend to use our approach to develop software algorithms for the design of phase masks (that is, photomasks that use phase shifting regions to enhance resolution). We intend todemonstrate a proof-of-principle simulation confirming that we are able to use our inverse algorithm to design phase masks. The commercialization of optimized photomasks would have dramatic positive effects upon the Department of Defense, thesemiconductor industry and consumers in the United States. Semiconductors are ubiquitous devices that are the heart and brains of all electronics and computers and are the cornerstone of the United States technology industry. If the sub-wavelength gapprevents the continued advance of Moore's law, the power of semiconductors will not continue advancing at their historic rate, threatening the technological supremacy of the United States and the US Armed Forces. Similarly, if the sub-wavelength gapprevents semiconductor prices from continuing their historic decline, the productivity gains in the US economy associated with technology will also be threatened. On the other hand, the successful commercialization of optimized photomasks by LuminescentTechnologies will enable the DoD to obtain faster, more efficient, and cheaper semiconductors. In addition the technology will create billions of dollars in value for the US technology industry, while literally saving American consumers billions ofdollars.