Mitigating challenges in aberration-corrected electron-beam lithography on electron-opaque substrates

Camino, Fernando E.; Tiwale, Nikhil; Hwang, Sooyeon; Du, Xu; Yang, Judith C.

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ad0908

Title: Mitigating challenges in aberration-corrected electron-beam lithography on electron-opaque substrates

Journal Article · Thu Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2023 · Nanotechnology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/ad0908· OSTI ID:2246882

^[1];

^[2]; Yang, Judith C. ^[1]

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)

Aberration-corrected electron-beam lithography (AC-EBL) using ultra-thin electron transparent membranes has achieved single-digit nanometer resolution in two widely used electron-beam resists: poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and hydrogen silsesquioxane. On the other hand, AC-EBL implementation on thick, electron-opaque substrates is appealing for conventional top-down fabrication of quantum devices with nanometer-scale features. To investigate the performance of AC-EBL on thick substrates, we measured the lithographic point spread function of a 200 keV aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope by defining both positive and negative patterns in PMMA thin films, spin-cast on thick SiO₂/Si substrates. We present the problems encountered during pre-exposure beam focusing and discuss methods to overcome them. In addition, applying some of these methods using commercial 50 nm thick SiN_X membranes with thick Si support frames, we printed arrays of holes in PMMA with pitches around 26 nm on SiN_X/Si substrates with increasing Si thickness. Here, our results show that proximity effects from even 50 nm thick SiN_X membranes limit hole arrays to 20 nm pitch; however, down to this limit, the effect of the substrate thickness on the pattern quality is minimal. These results highlight the need for novel resists less susceptible to proximity effects, or resists which can be used directly, after development, as the dielectric material in periodic gates in 2D quantum devices.

This content will become publicly available on Sat Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2024

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 2246882

Report Number(s):: BNL-225106-2023-JAAM

Journal Information:: Nanotechnology, Vol. 35, Issue 6; ISSN 0957-4484

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (15)

Band structure engineering of 2D materials using patterned dielectric superlattices Forsythe, Carlos; Zhou, Xiaodong; Watanabe, Kenji Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 13, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0138-7	journal	May 2018
Proximity effect in electron‐beam lithography Chang, T. H. P. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology, Vol. 12, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.568515	journal	November 1975
Calibration of the operating parameters for an HB5 stem instrument Lin, J. A.; Cowley, J. M. Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 19, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3991(86)90005-7	journal	January 1986
In Situ Study of the Impact of Aberration-Corrected Electron-Beam Lithography on the Electronic Transport of Suspended Graphene Devices Mizuno, Naomi; Camino, Fernando; Du, Xu Nanomaterials, Vol. 10, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.3390/nano10040666	journal	April 2020
Towards sub-Å electron beams Krivanek, O. L.; Dellby, N.; Lupini, A. R. Ultramicroscopy, Vol. 78, Issue 1-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3991(99)00013-3	journal	June 1999
Stacking of Two-Dimensional Materials in Lateral and Vertical Directions Lim, Hyunseob; Yoon, Seong In; Kim, Gwangwoo Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 26, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1021/cm502170q	journal	August 2014
Imaging single atoms using secondary electrons with an aberration-corrected electron microscope Zhu, Y.; Inada, H.; Nakamura, K. Nature Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2532	journal	September 2009
Patterning Si at the 1 nm Length Scale with Aberration‐Corrected Electron‐Beam Lithography: Tuning of Plasmonic Properties by Design Manfrinato, Vitor R.; Camino, Fernando E.; Stein, Aaron Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 52 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201903429	journal	July 2019
Determining the Resolution Limits of Electron-Beam Lithography: Direct Measurement of the Point-Spread Function Manfrinato, Vitor R.; Wen, Jianguo; Zhang, Lihua Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1021/nl5013773	journal	June 2014
Aberration-Corrected Electron Beam Lithography at the One Nanometer Length Scale Manfrinato, Vitor R.; Stein, Aaron; Zhang, Lihua Nano Letters, Vol. 17, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b00514	journal	April 2017
Point exposure distribution measurements for proximity correction in electron beam lithography on a sub-100 nm scale Rishton, S. A. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.583847	journal	January 1987
Van der Waals heterostructures Geim, A. K.; Grigorieva, I. V. Nature, Vol. 499, Issue 7459, p. 419-425 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12385	journal	July 2013
Automatic aberration-correction system for scanning electron microscopy Hirose, Kotoko; Nakano, Tomonori; Kawasaki, Takeshi Microelectronic Engineering, Vol. 88, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mee.2010.12.040	journal	August 2011
Sub-ångstrom resolution using aberration corrected electron optics Batson, P. E.; Dellby, N.; Krivanek, O. L. Nature, Vol. 418, Issue 6898 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature00972	journal	August 2002
Patterning at the Resolution Limit of Commercial Electron Beam Lithography Saifullah, Mohammad S. M.; Asbahi, Mohamed; Neo, Darren C. J. Nano Letters, Vol. 22, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02339	journal	September 2022

Similar Records

Aberration-Corrected Electron Beam Lithography at the One Nanometer Length Scale

Journal Article · Tue Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Nano Letters · OSTI ID:2246882

Manfrinato, Vitor R.; Stein, Aaron; Zhang, Lihua; +4 more

Vapor‐Phase Infiltrated Organic–Inorganic Positive‐Tone Hybrid Photoresist for Extreme UV Lithography

Journal Article · Thu Aug 03 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Advanced Materials Interfaces · OSTI ID:2246882

Subramanian, Ashwanth; Tiwale, Nikhil; Lee, Won‐Il; +5 more

100 kV thermal field emission electron beam lithography tool for high-resolution x-ray mask patterning

Conference · · Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. B, Microelectronics Processing and Phenomena; (United States) · OSTI ID:2246882

McCord, M A; Viswanathan, R; Hohn, F J; +3 more

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
e-beam lithography
aberration correction
top-down device fabrication
2D quantum devices

Title: Mitigating challenges in aberration-corrected electron-beam lithography on electron-opaque substrates

Citation Formats

References (15)

Similar Records

Related Subjects