EE/MASC 507: Micro- and

Nano- fabrication Technology

VPDLL101, 2-4 pm Monday, Wednesday
Instructor: Wei Wu
Email: wu.w@usc.edu
Tel: 213-740-3085.
Office: PHE632
Office hour: 4-5 pm Tue.
TA: Nishat Tasnim Hiramony
Email: hiramony@usc.edu
Office: BHE106A
Office hour: 12-2 pm Tue
 A Little Background

EE 507 EE 508 EE 504

(3 units) (3 units) (3 units)

EE 507
(4 units, Fall)

?
EE 504
(4 units, Spring)
 Goal of the Class
• This is one of the 2 courses on Nanofabrication
• EE507: Lectures
• EE504: Lectures and labs
• Survey the landscape of the stat-of-the-art nano-
fabrication technologies.
• Understand the fundamental sciences behind nano-
fabrication.
• Provide the starting point of nano-fabrication
research.
• Exercise on problem-solving in nanofabrication.
• For VLSI students
• You can design your circuits, as long as you
know the design rules.
• But if you really want to know where the
design rule comes from, then this class is
for you
 Topics to be covered in two semesters
Both technologies used in semiconductor industry and in research lab will be
covered
Lithography technologies:
• Photolithography
• EUV lithography
• Interference lithography and other photon-based lithography
• Electron-beam lithography (and SEM)
• Focused ion beam lithography
• Scanning probe lithography (and AFM and STM)
Non-lithography technologies:
• How to make wafers
• Ion implantation
• Thermal oxidation
• Deposition
• Etching
Process Simulation software:
• Synopsys Sentaurus Process
 Contents I plan to cover this semester

• Introduction
• State-of-the-art photolithography
• EUV lithography
• Other photon-based lithography
• Electron-beam lithography (including SEM)
• Focused ion beam (FIB)
• Etching
• Deposition (If we have time)
 House Keeping
Special thank to
• Prof. Bo Cui of U. of Waterloo for sharing his class notes.
• Prof. Yong Chen of UCLA for sharing his class notes.

Course text: “Fabrication Engineering at the Micro and Nanoscale”, by Stephen A.

Campbell + handout
• The books can be used as a reference book for fabrication related topics even
after the class.
Grading:
10% homework, 20% oral presentation, 30% mid-term, 40% final exam.
A: [Ave+ 100], A-: [Ave, Ave+), B+: [Ave- Ave),
B: [Ave-2 Ave-), B-:[Ave-3 Ave-2), …
I know everyone has a tough life, but I need to be fair to
everyone too…
 Exam schedule

Midterm (in class, same room):

How about 10/13 or 10/15?

Final exam (same room):

2-4 p.m. Friday, December 12 (set by school, can’t be
changed)
 What is One Nanometer?
1 nm is 10-9 m
1 nm is about 10-5 of the diameter of human hair.
Your fingernails grow about 1 nm per second.
If the total length of earth
were 1 m, 1 nm would be

only 4 cm (~1.6 inch)!

Length Scale
• Nanoscale seats between the
macro-world and the micro-world
• New phenomena
• Rich sciences
• Applications
• New device
• New functionalities
• Better performance
• Lower costs

Nano-structures
.
Color of Nanoparticles

The famous Lycurgus Cup, displayed in the British

Museum, is a remarkable piece of Roman glasswork,
“Labors of the Months” Norwich, England, dating to the fifth century. (a) The green appearance is
ca. 1480. The different colors are induced produced by reflection. (b) Red and purple colors are
by the size variation of embedded gold due to transmitted light. The apparent dichroism is due
nanoparticles. to the interaction of light with gold–silver and copper
nano particles ranged from 20 nm to 40 nm in size
embedded within the soda glass matrix of the cup.
Nanodots as Fluorescent Probes

A mouse cerebellum section

visualized using a fluorescent Qdot®
nanocrystal conjugate. IP3 receptors
were labeled with a rabbit anti-IP3
antibody and visualized using green-
fluorescent Qdot® 525 goat F(ab')2
anti–rabbit IgG (Cat. no.
Q11441MP). Actin was labeled with
red-fluorescent rhodamine phalloidin
(Cat. no. R415). Nuclei were stained
with blue-fluorescent DAPI (Cat. no.
D1306, D3571, D21490). Image by
Thomas Deerinck and Mark
Ellisman, The National Center for
Microscopy and Imaging Research,
San Diego, CA.
Gold Nanoparticles for Cancer Treatment

• Gold particles go to cancer

tumor.
• Gold particles absorb infrared
light.
• The cancer tumor is burnt
 Nano Drug/Gene Delivery

The promise of nanoparticle-based

drug delivery has stimulated
exciting research lines in as
diverse a fields as nanoscience,
molecular biology and
pharmaceutical sciences.
Nanoscale materials and devices
hold great promise for advanced
Nanoparticles--each about 1/100th the size of a diagnostics, sensors, targeted drug
human cell and engineered to be stealthy delivery, smart drugs, screening
within the body—can deliver high doses of and novel cellular therapies.
gene and drugs to cells.
Nano-System for Medical Applications

Vastly reduced
component sizes A chiral colloidal propellers
resulting from that can be navigated in
nanoengineering water with micrometer-level
could enable precision using
complete surgical homogeneous magnetic
robots or miniature fields. The nanopropellers
medical devices to be can carry chemicals, push
constructed. Iranian loads, and act as local
Nanotechnology probes in rheological
Initiative. measurements. Harvard
University.

A nano capsule with nanovalves

that releases drugs under
certain conditions, like different
0.5 mm wide, 4 mm pH levels. The valve can be used
long micro for targeted drug delivery to
submarine in a cells differing in their
human artery physiological characters.
By MicroTec, Potentially, the nanovalve could
Germany be used as a "smart weapon" in
the fight against a host of
diseases including cancer. UCLA
 It is
The Most Important Nano too!
Nanotechnology Application

• Apple M4MAX, fabricated using TSMC 3 nm technology.

• 100 billion transistors
• M4s’ area sizes are not publicly disclosed (Apple M2 has a die size of 155 mm2)
 It is
The Most Important Nano too!
Nanotechnology Application

NVIDIA B200
208 Billion Transistors
1,628 mm2

$2~3 M $30,000 - $40,00

Fabricated using TSMC 5 nm technology.

 Nanofabrication - two principal approaches
Top Down: Bottom up
Implementation of various techniques Atomic and molecular scale directed
to remove, add or redistribute atoms or assembly to create larger scale
molecules in a bulk material to create a structures with engineered properties
final structure. E.g. chemical self –assembly
Information is input from “top” Information is in each unit cell

Machined Assembled
 Bottom-up nanofabrication

Chemical synthesis
• Nanotubes and nanowires
• Quantum dots and nanoparticles
• Polymers
• Proteins
• Nanofibers produced by proteins

Location arrangement
• Self assembly Carbon nanotube
o Mono-layers, e.g. nano-sphere lithography
o Block copolymers
o Functionalized nanoscale structures
• Fluidic or field assisted assembly
• Surface tension directed assembly
• Etching
o Porous materials, e.g. anodized aluminum
oxide Anodized aluminum oxide
DNA Origami
Nanosphere lithography (bottom up, self assembly)

22
 We will focus on top-down fabrication

What is really top-down fabrication?

• Input information is the format of spatial

arrangement of materials.
• Most device with complex functionality
needs top-down fabrication
 Top down nanofabrication: one
example metal nanostructures

Metal nanostructures
side
view substrate
substrate
Direct etch process Liftoff process
resist resist
(polymer) (polymer)
1. Thin film growth 1. Thin film growth

2. Lithography 2. Lithography

3. Etching
3. Deposition

4. Etching (dissolve resist) 4. Etching (dissolve resist)

One more step: pillar array with various diameters

Pitch: 200nm
Cr 35 nm diameter
silicon
1. Cr dots by liftoff

2. RIE silicon and remove Cr

(RIE: reactive ion etching)

70 nm diameter
115 nm diameter
 Additive methods
Thin film deposition
• Physical vapor deposition (PVD): sputtering, e-beam or thermal evaporation
• Chemical vapor deposition (CVD): metal-organic CVD, plasma-enhanced CVD, low
pressure CVD…
• Epitaxy: molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), liquid-phase epitaxy…
• Electrochemical deposition: electro- and electroless plating (of metals)
• Oxidation (growth of thermal SiO2)
• Spin-on and spray-on film coating (resist coating)

Printing techniques: ink-jet, micro-contact printing

Assembly: wafer bonding, surface mount, wiring and bonding
 Subtractive and modifying methods
Subtractive methods:
• Etching: wet chemical etching, reactive ion etching; ion beam sputter etching,
focused ion beam etching.
• Tool-assisted material removal: chemical-mechanical polishing, chipping, drilling,
milling, sand blasting.
• Radioactive and thermal treatment: laser ablation, spark erosion.

Modifying methods:
• Radiative treatment: resist exposure, polymer hardening
• Thermal annealing: crystallization, diffusion, change of phase
• Ion beam treatment: implantation, amorphization
• Mechanical modification: plastic forming and shaping, scanning probe manipulation
A Video on Semiconductor IC Manufacture Overview
Semiconductor Technology at TSMC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q_n4vdyZzc
Key requirements of lithography (for manufacturing ICs)

• Critical dimension (CD) control

Size of features must be controlled within wafer and wafer-to-wafer
• Overlay (alignment between different layers)
For high yield, alignment must be precisely controlled
• Defect control
Other than designed pattern, no additional patterns must be imaged
• Low cost
Tool, resist, mask; fast step-and-repeat
• About half of total semiconductor manufacturing cost is due to lithography
(masks, resists, metrology)
• One example: the 5 nm technology of TSMC has ~81 lithography steps.
 How lithography started
State-of-art Reticle
photolithography (Mask)
tool for IC
industry

Wafer
193 nm Excimer Laser Exposure
Source Computer
Column
Console
(Lens)
• Lithography (Greek for "stone drawing"); based on repulsion of oil and water.
• Invented by Alois Senefelder in 1798.
• Used for book illustrations, artist's prints, packaging, posters, etc.
• In 1825, Francisco Goya (Spanish court painter, known for his scenes of
violence) produced a series of lithographs (in color, need alignment).
• In the 20th and 21st century, become an important technique with unique
expressive capabilities in the art field.
• Nowadays used in semiconductor manufacturing (integrated circuit - IC).
 Photolithography
• Process used to transfer a pattern from
a photomask to the surface of a
substrate
• Formation of images with visible or
ultraviolet radiation in a photoresist
• No limitation of substrate (Si, glass,
metal, plastic...)
• Working horse of current chip
manufacturing processes (5 nm now)
• Most widely used lithography system for
R&D

Source: Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics

http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm
 Photolithography

• Block radiation where it is not wanted i.e. absorb radiation

Need opaque material at the desired wavelength
• Transmit radiation where it is needed
Need material with high transmission at the desired wavelength
• For optical lithography, mask is quartz glass (transparent) + Cr (opaque) or
Iron Oxide (opaque to UV transparent in visible)
• It can be positive (exposed resist is removed) or negative (unexposed resist is
removed)
 Three optical lithography methods
Contact aligner Proximity aligner Projection aligner

Mask in contact with Gap (order 10m)

photo-resist film between mask
(Gap=0 m) photoresist Like photography, imaging

• Photoresist is a light-sensitive material to form a patterned coating on a surface

• Photoresists are classified into two groups: positive and negative resists.
• Positive resists become more soluble on exposure to radiation (e.g. PMMA, S1805).
• Negative resists become less soluble on exposure to radiation (e.g. SU-8).
 Fresnel & Fraunhofer diffraction (from an aperture)

Light intensity profile

Contact Near field (Frensnel ) Far filed (Fraunhofer)

 Contact and proximity photolithography
Contact Proximity g (=gap between mask and resist top surface)

light mask resist wafer light intensity

light mask resist wafer light intensity

• Mask is brought into physical • Small gap (2-20m) between mask and
contact with photoresist photoresist (mask damage eliminated).
• Mask image : resist image is 1:1 • Near-field (Fresnel) diffraction effects.
• Not limited by diffraction • Loss of exact mask reproduction for small feature
• Damage of mask possible size (i.e. reduced resolution).
• Highest resolution: (t is resist • As mask separation g (=gap) increases, quality of
thickness, k is a parameter image degrades.
relating to resist, normally close • Resolution:
to 1)
Wmin  kg
Wmin  kt
 Projection printing
 
Wmin = k1 = k1
n sin  NA

Numerical aperture, NA
n
=  , depth of focus
NA 2

• Similar to photography: image formation on the resist surface

• Resolution is limited by far field diffraction (Fraunhofer), need good lens for high
resolution.
• Usually 4x or 5x reduction, then step and repeat.
• Very expensive, used mainly by the semiconductor industry, and unpopular for academic
research.
• Currently, IC industry uses =193nm deep UV light from ArF excimer laser (10s nano-
second incoherent pulse) for exposure, with immersion. It is used up to 7 nm node (with
multiple patterning). The resolution (half-pitch of dense line array) is about 38 nm.
• Industry (TSMC, SAMSUNG, and INTEL) starts to use EUV at 7 nm, to 2 nm nodes. The
resolution is 13 nm.
 Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography (=13.5nm)

• Short wavelength (13.5 nm) permits high resolution

even with small numerical apertures.
• Used in 7 nm, 5 nm and 3 nm production (TSMC
only now)

EUV mirror

Lens (transmission) is not possible at EUV.

So use reflection lens.
Bragg reflector made of alternating Mo/Si
layers that enables high efficiency (68% at
normal incidence) reflection of 13.5 nm light.
 X-ray lithography (XRL)
• λ < 1nm (extremely short wavelength for high resolution).
• X-rays are produced by synchrotron radiation in a high energy electron storage
ring.
• Contamination becomes a smaller concern because X-rays will penetrate most
dust particles (low atomic number).
• No need for vacuum (little absorption of x-ray by air).
• No lens (transmission or reflection), because for X- ray, refractive index n1;
thus only proximity printing.
• Proximity printing can still achieve high resolution (<30nm) due to small λ
(proximity has much longer mask life than contact printing).
• Deep penetrating power of the x-rays into the photoresist and low diffraction
(spread of beam), thus good for creating microstructures with great height (high
aspect ratio).
• Popular resist (PMMA) has very low sensitivity to X-rays (SU-8 is much more
sensitive).
Resolution: Wmin  kg
 X-ray lithography (XRL) masks

XRL mask
• XRL masks are composed of thin membrane
substrate/support (Si, Be, or SiC, Si3N4 (few μm, very
thin!) ) and X-ray absorbers (high Z atoms such as Au, W).
• Strain in the thin membrane may warp the patterns.
• Masks degrade due to repeated exposure to X-rays.
• In one word, the high cost of membrane mask is one of
the most serious issues that prevents XRL from
application for semiconductor industry. (The other issue
is bright X-ray source, need synchrotron radiation)
http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/overview/cxrlibm.htm
l
 XRL: advantages and disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
• Good resolution (down to 30 nm*) • X-ray masks are very difficult to make
• No interference from dust • Conventional lenses cannot focus X-rays
• Relatively fast • Expensive (synchrotron radiation source)
• Deep penetration to resist, high aspect ratio
• No depth of focus problem
High aspect ratio micro-structures by XRL Intersection of the three beams

Three-cylinder photonic crystal structure in ceramic. Exposed by

repeated exposures a different tilt angles between the mask and
synchrotron. Almost like mechanical drilling.
80μm resist structure G. Feiertag, APL, 71 (11) 1997.
with aspect ratio > 10.
White, APL, 66 (16) 1995.
 Lithography using charged particles I: electron beam lithography (EBL)
Electron beam direct write (EBDW)

Focused electron
beam, =2-5nm
Resist
(PMMA…)

Metal patterning by EBL and liftoff

 Electron Beam Direct Write (EBDW)

• Electron beam has a wavelength so small that diffraction no longer defines the
lithographic resolution.
• Tool is just like an SEM with on-off capability controlled by a “beam blanker”.
• Accurate positioning, “see” the substrate first, then exposure.
• Beam spot diameter of 2nm can be achieved, at typical acceleration voltage of >20keV.
• Typical resolution ~15nm (world record 4.5 nm), limited by proximity effect and lateral
diffusion of secondary electrons (SE, energy ~tens of eV; actually, SE, rather than the
primary electrons, contribute to the exposure of resist).
• Most popular prototyping tool for R&D, but too slow for mass production.

Wavelength of electrons
h
= (non-relativistic)
2 Em
1.226
= (nm)
V
Where V is electron energy in eV unit.
For example, 30keV → =0.007nm!
 E-beam Lithography Resolution Limit
Finite focusing spot
Interaction of electrons and resist leads to beam spreading
• Elastic and in-elastic scattering in the resist and substrate.
• In-elastic scattering generates secondary electrons.
• Lateral diffusion of secondary electrons.
• The result: 2nm e-beam becomes 15nm line.
• Features as small as 4.5 nm are possible, but rarely demonstrated.

Monte Carlo simulation of

electrons trajectory,
showing forward and back
scattering.

Advantages Disadvantages
• Direct write technique (no mask) • Slow (but multiple beams can be used)
• Computer controlled • Expensive
• Can image surface before exposing • Proximity effect (especially dense pattern)
• High resolution • Lift off can be difficult for negative resists
 Increase Throughput by Exposing Many Pixels Simultaneously

VSB (variable shaped beam) CP (character projection)

• Maskless
• Serial process, but much faster
• Less resolution
• Mainly used in mask shop (remember there is 4x factor)
 Parallel e-beam lithography, faster.
SCALPEL masks - membrane & stencil
(electron projection lithography - EPL)

SCAPEL: Scattering with angular limitation projection electron beam lithography.

Dark and light regions differentiated by their scattering strength at the SCALPEL aperture.
 Lithography using charged particles II: focused ion beam(FIB)
• Ga+ ion beam (down to 5nm) to raster over the surface.
• FIB can cut away (mill, sputter) material (electron is too light for this).
• By introducing gases, FIB can selectively etch or deposit a metal or oxide.
• He+ ion was added a few years ago, and Si and Au ion later.
 Focused ion beam (FIB)
• Like electron beam lithography (EBL), direct write technique – no masks necessary.
• Can expose a resist with higher sensitivity than EBL, but very low penetration
depth (resist<<100nm, pattern transfer difficult).
• In principle, FIB has better resolution than e-beam lithography because secondary
electrons have lower energy (but it is easier to focus electron beams).
• Re-deposition of sputtered material to other part of the device is a problem.
• In summary, very versatile (deposition, etching, lithography, all in one tool); but
slow and expensive, more complicated than EBL.
A FIB system is similar to SEM, but ion source
(mostly Ga+) is used to replace electron
source.
Most lab systems have both ion source and
electron source (dual beam).
SIM: scanning ion microscopy, similar to SEM
except that now the secondary electrons
(signal to form image) is generated by ion –
matter interaction.
No back scattering, so no BSE image.
(BSE: back scattered electrons)
Helium Ion Beam Lithography (HIBL)

Beam spot: 3.5 Å

Helium Ion Beam Lithography (HIBL)
Latest Helium Ion Microscope
Rearranged tungsten atoms for bright
helium ion source Typical trimer image on HP HIM

B.W. Ward et al, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 2006

0.24 nm record
imaging resolution
was demonstrated
using HIM

From Carl Zeiss

 He Ion: Much Less Proximity Effect

Beam scattering Second electron generation

Small spot + little proximity effect --> better beam for lithography!
HIBL for Sub-4 nm Patterning on HSQ Resist

5 nm half pitch 4 nm half pitch

10 nm 8 nm
full pitch full pitch

HSQ thickness: 12 nm
Imaged under SEM at 20kV
5 nm Half Pitch Lines Patterned in 10 nm Thick Chromium

He+ beam

20 nm Si3N4 membrane
10 nm chromium
8 nm half pitch 5 nm half pitch
Question 1 (due with the next assignment)

Mask: block the light Mask: scatter electron beam

Why?
Question 2 (optional, due with the next assignment)

Wavelength of particles
h
= (non-relativistic)
2 Em
1.226
= (nm) electron
V

How about relativistic case?

At 200 KeV energy, what is the wavelength of the electron in non-relativistic

approximation? Do you think that is a valid approximation? Why? How about
He ion?