NANOFABRICATION

What is Nanofabrication?
 Nanofabrication is the design and manufacture of
devices with dimensions measured in nanometers,
essentially dealing with dimensions less than
100nm.

 Nanofabrication is of interest to computer engineers

because it opens the door to super-high-density
microprocessors and memory chips.

 Nanofabrication has caught the attention of the

medical industry with regard to drug delivery
systems, nanosurgery using nanorobotic devices
etc.

 It is also being extensively researched for use in

military and aerospace applications.
Classic Approach to
fabrication:
• Top down approach –
Nanostructures are made by
stripping layer by layer from
the top. An example involves
scaling down integrated-circuit
( IC ) fabrication, i.e., by
removing one atom at a time
until the desired structure
emerges.
• Bottom up approach – This
relies on self assembly process
where nanostructures are built
atom by atom from the
bottom. An example involves
the assembly of a chip atom-
by-atom; this would resemble
bricklaying.
Types of nanofabrication
• Nanolithography refers to the fabrication of
nanometer-scale structures by patterning
substrates with at least one lateral dimension
between the size of an individual atom and 100 nm
by employing interaction of beams of photons. It
results in the selective removal or deposition of
material onto a substrate in a pre determined
pattern.

• Self assembly is a bottom up process in which

components arrange themselves into structured
units or patterns from a base.
 Nanolithography
Any form of lithography essentially means patterning or
printing on a smooth surface by exploiting chemical
interactions to obtain images or characters. In case of
nanolithography, many different principles are used for
creating nanometer scale structures.
The basic types:
Optical/Photolithography
Electron beam lithography
Ion beam lithography
Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography
X-Ray Lithography
Alternate Lithography techniques:
Micro contact printing
Nano imprint lithography
Scanned probe lithography
Dip pen lithography
Nano lithography (contd.)
Optical lithography
It has been the predominant pattern technique since the
advent of the semi conductor age which is capable of producing
some 100nm patterns with the use of very short wavelengths
(currently 248-365nm).
X-Ray lithography
X-ray lithography can be extended to an optical resolution of
0.8nm by using the short wavelength of 1 nanometer for the
illumination.
Electron beam direct write lithography
The use of a beam of electrons to produce a pattern typically
in a polymeric resist PMMA{Polymethyl(methacrylate)}
Extreme Ultraviolet lithography
It is a form of lithography using ultra short wavelengths
(13.5nm).
Optical Lithography:
It is a process used in
nanofabrication to selectively
remove parts of a thin film (or the
bulk of a substrate).
It uses light to transfer a geometric
pattern from a photomask to a
light-sensitive chemical
(‘photoresist’, or simply ‘resist’) on
the substrate.
A series of chemical treatments
then engraves the exposure pattern
into the material underneath the
photoresist.
The basic procedure involves:
Cleaning and preparation of the wafer

Exposure and developing the photoresist coated wafer

Etching/Thin film deposition/lift off

Photoresist removal

Photolithography normally employs light from sources

like gas discharge lamps with mercury and mixture of
noble gases like xenon etc. More recently deep UV
(<300nm) produced from lasers are being used.
Electron Beam Lithography :
 It is the practice of using a beam of electrons to generate patterns
on a surface covered with a resist.
 The primary advantage of electron beam lithography is that it is
one of the ways to beat the diffraction limit of light.
 It uses a focused beam of electrons to form the circuit patterns
needed for material deposition on (or removal from) the wafer.
It does not use a mask, electron beams are used to directly etch on
the wafer surface.
 It offers higher patterning resolution than optical lithography
because of the shorter wavelength possessed by the 10-50 keV
electrons that it employs.
 Ion Beam Lithography
 This is a variation of the electron beam lithography technique,
using an focused ion beam (FIB) instead of an electron beam, which
scans across the substrate surface and exposes the sensitive coating.

 A grid of pixels is superimposed on the substrate surface, each

pixel having a unique address. The pattern data is transferred to the
controlling computer, which then directs the electron beam to realize
the pattern on the substrate pixel by pixel.
 The advantages of ion beam lithography include
 computer controlled beam
 minimized back scattering
 no necessity for mask
 minimized diffraction effects
 higher resolution
 accurate surface feature registration
 ion sensitive resists are better responsive
 Extreme Ultraviolet lithography:
It uses 13.5nm EUV wavelength
All matters absorbs EUV therefore procedure to be carried out in vacuum
All optical instruments and photo resists are made of multilayer defect free
mirrors which reflect light by means of interlayer interference
 X Ray Lithography:
The short wavelengths of 0.8 nm X-rays overcome
diffraction limits in the resolution of the otherwise
competent optical lithography.
Deep X-ray lithography uses yet shorter
wavelengths, about 0.1 nm with modified
procedures, to fabricate deeper structures
The mask consists of an X-ray absorber, typically of gold
or compounds of tantalum or tungsten, on a membrane
that is transparent to X-rays, typically of silicon carbide or
diamond

The figure is an example of a quantum dot array

generated by three dimensional x ray lithography:
 Soft Lithography
Refers to a family of techniques for fabricating or replicating
structures using "elastomeric stamps, molds, and conformable
photomasks" It is called "soft" because it uses elastomeric
materials most notably PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane). Soft
lithography is generally used to construct features measured
on the micrometer to nanometer scale.

Soft lithography includes the technologies of

Micro Contact Printing (µCP), Replica moulding (REM), Micro
transfer moulding (µTM), Micro moulding in capillaries (MIMIC)
and Solvent Assisted microcontact moulding (SAMIM) (From
Xia et al.) Patterning by etching at the nanoscale (PENs)
One of the soft lithography procedures,
Micro contact printing as discussed by Xia and Whitesides, is as
follows:
The lithography procedures (photolithography, EBL, etc.) are
followed to etch a desired pattern onto a substrate (usually silicon)
Next, the stamp is created by pouring a degassed resin overtop of
the etched wafer. Common resins include PDMS and Flurosilicon.
Removing the cured resin from the substrate, a stamp contoured to
your pattern is acquired.
 The stamp is then "inked" by placing it in a bath of inking solution
(for example, in ethanol) and ODT (octadecanethiol) for a short
period of time(Figure 1). The ink molecules then diffuse into the
stamp (Figure 2).
The inked stamp is brought in contact with the substrate for a
certain length of time,allowing ink molecules to transfer onto the
substrate surface. The stamp is removed, leaving the desired single-
molecule thick pattern on the substrate.
Steps 4 and 5 are repeated for each substrate on which the pattern
is desired
 Figure 1 - "Inking" a stamp. PDMS
stamp with pattern is placed in
Ethanol and ODT solution

Figure 3 - The PDMS stamp with

the ODT is placed on the gold
substrate. When the stamp is
removed, the ODT in contact with
the gold stays stuck to the gold.
Thus the pattern from the stamp is
transferred to the gold via the ODT
"ink."
Figure 2 - ODT from the solution settles
down onto the PDMS stamp. Stamp now
has ODT attached to it which acts as the
ink.
Types of soft lithography

Micromoulding in capillaries (MIMIC):1um

Microtransfer moulding:250nm
Solvent Assisted Microcontact
Moulding(SAMIM):60nm
Replica Moulding
Microcontact printing:300nm
Scanning tunneling microscope (STM):
Is a powerful instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level.
Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, gerd binnig and
heinrich rohrer (at IBM zürich), the nobel prize in physics in
1986.
For an STM, good resolution is considered to be 0.1 nm lateral
resolution and 0.01 nm depth resolution. With this resolution,
individual atoms within materials are routinely imaged and
manipulated.

The STM can be used not only in ultra high vacuum but also in air,
water and various other liquid or gas ambient, and at
temperatures ranging from near zero kelvin's to a few hundred
degrees celsius.

The STM is based on the concept of quantum tunneling. When a

conducting t ip is brought very near to the surface to be examined,
a bias (voltage difference) applied between the two can allow
electrons to tunnel through the vacuum between them.
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM):
In 1981:Direct visualization of surface atoms was made using STM

Tunneling is the process in which electrons can pass from one

metal to another even though they are not in contact. This process
occurs by coupling of electronic states between the two surfaces

A sharp tip is attached to a piezoelectric translator (material that

expands and contracts according to the amount of electric current
that travels through it) can position the tip with angstrom
precision(10-10m)

As the tip is scanned over the surface, electrons move between the
tip and the sample.

By attempting to maintain a constant current using a feedback loop

monitored by a computer the piezoelectric receives a signal from the
computer to raise or lower the tip as it scans over the surface.

Plotting the changes in the tip height and position produces a three
dimensional image surface yielding the ability to view the locations
of single atoms and to manipulate their atomic positions.
Scanning tunneling microscope (STM):
 Scanning tunneling microscope (STM):

• The resulting tunneling current is a function of tip position,

applied voltage, and the local density of states (LDOS) of the
sample.

• Information is acquired by monitoring the current as the tip's

position scans across the surface, and is usually displayed in
image form.

• STM can be a challenging technique, as it can require extremely

clean and stable surfaces, sharp tips, excellent vibration control,
and sophisticated electronics.
Atomic Force Microscope
The Atomic Force Microscope was developed to overcome a basic
drawback with STM – that it can only image conducting or
semiconducting surfaces. The AFM however has the advantage of
imaging almost any type of surface, including polymers, ceramics,
composites, glass and biological samples.
The atomic force microscope moves a sharp probe over the
specimen surface while keeping the distance between the probe tip
and the surface constant.
It does this by exerting a very small amount of force on the tip,
just enough to maintain a constant distance but not enough force to
damage the surface.
The vertical motion of the tip usually is followed by measuring the
deflection of a laser beam that strikes the lever holding the probe.
Unlike the scanning tunneling microscope, the atomic force
microscope can be used to study surfaces that do not conduct
electricity well. The atomic force microscope has been used to
study the interactions between the E. coli GroES and GroEL
chaperonin proteins, to map plasmids by locating restriction enzymes
bound to specific sites, and to follow the behavior of living bacteria
and other cells.