| AVS 59th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Nanometer-scale Science and Technology | Monday Sessions |
| Session NS+SP-MoA |
| Session: | Nanopatterning and Nanolithography |
| Presenter: | J. Fu, National Institute of Standards and Technology |
| Authors: | J. Fu, National Institute of Standards and Technology K. Li, National Institute of Standards and Technology N. Pradeep, National Institute of Standards and Technology L. Chen, National Institute of Standards and Technology R. Silver, National Institute of Standards and Technology |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
We are using Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) to write patterns directly on a single crystal silicon surface that was reconstruted and hydrogen-passivated in the ultra high vacuum (UHV) chambers, and are followed by the process of reactive ion etching to transfer the patterns into the silicon bulk. The patterns were written either by an atomic force microscope (AFM) in the ambience or by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) in UHV chambers and was immediately proceeded by an oxidation process in a seperate vacuum chamber. AFM or STM patterned samples were immediately transferred to a RIE chamber via an argon back-filled inflatable glove box.
In terms of patterning, the AFM in the ambient enviroment and the STM in the UHV both can perform lithograph; however, the mechanism are quite different: the AFM is adding species, OH-, to the surface, and the STM is removing species, H, from the silicon surface.
The features patterning by the AFM prior to RIE process were 1~2nm in height, and were 15~20nm height after RIE and 6nm wide (FWHM) that were measured and confirmed by a critial dimension AFM (CD-AFM). For the features patterning by STM, it was conjectured the height were 0.2~0.3nm prior to RIE. After the RIE process, the height was measured to be 0.7nm.