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Exposure Time Comparison between E-beam Writer with Gaussian Beam and Variable Shaped Beam
Horáček, Miroslav ; Krátký, Stanislav ; Urbánek, Michal ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Meluzín, Petr ; Matějka, Milan ; Chlumská, Jana
One of the main goals in e-beam lithography is to increase exposure speed to achieve higher throughput. There are basically two types of electron-beam writers, shaped beam lithography systems and Gaussian beam lithography systems. The exposure time of both e-beam writers consist in essence of beam-on time, deflection system stabilization time and stage movement time. Exposure time testing was carried out on two types of patterns. There were completely filled in areas, binary period gratings (ratio 1:1 between exposed and unexposed areas), and multileveled structures (computer generated holograms). Exposures data was prepared according to standard technology (PMMA resist, exposure dose, non-alcoholic based developer) for both systems. The result of experiment shows that variable shaped beam system has advantage in multileveled structures while the Gaussian beam system is more suitable for gratings type of pattern. It was proved that combination of both systems has its use to increase exposures throughput.
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Plasmonic Structures In PMMA Resist
Urbánek, Michal ; Krátký, Stanislav ; Šimík, M. ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Horáček, Miroslav ; Matějka, Milan
Some metal material can exhibit special physical phenomenon which is called plasmon resonance. This effect can be used in optical applications where designed structures, using this effect, have special function as optical filters, polarizers, holograms etc. This papers deals with preparation of plasmonic structures in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) resist which is the most common material used for e-beam processing. Designed structures were prepared by e-beam writer with Gaussian beam and accelerating voltage of 100 kV. These structures are usually prepared into negative tone resist hydrogen silsesquioxane (HSQ). We prepared these structures by unusual way into positive resist PMMA due to unavailability and cost of HSQ resist. By this way we are able to achieve high resolution of structures suitable for special optical application. Exposed structures were developed in isopropyl based developer. Final structures after development were coated by two metal layers (first one is Ag layer, second one is gold) by magnetron sputtering and vacuum evaporation. The quality of prepared plasmonic structures was examined by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
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Phase photo masks produced by means of electron beam lithography and ion etching for Bragg gratings
Krátký, Stanislav ; Urbánek, Michal ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Horáček, Miroslav ; Chlumská, Jana ; Matějka, Milan ; Šerý, Mojmír ; Mikel, Břetislav
Fiber Bragg grating is based on the local changes of refractive index in the core of the optical fiber. It has a wide application area, e.g. different types of filters in communications, and it may also be used in sensing of mechanical stresses. One can use different technologies to prepare this type of grating, e.g. the refractive index can be modified directly during production of an optical fiber. Further, the grating may be exposed point by point by a laser beam. The most effective way is an exposure through a phase mask, since a mask may be used for the production of hundreds of grids. This paper discusses different approaches for the preparation of phase masks in terms of impact on the quality of the exposed Bragg grating. The lattice phase mask is defined mainly by two parameters; period and depth.
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Measurement of current density distribution in shaped e-beam writers
Horáček, Miroslav ; Bok, Jan ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Urbánek, Michal ; Matějka, Milan ; Krátký, Stanislav
The ZrO W(100) Schottky cathode is used in our e-beam writing system working with a rectangular-shaped electron beam. The homogeneous angular current density distribution is crucial for quality of exposures of the shaped beam lithography systems. Two basic types of the angular emission distribution can be observed in dependence on the microscopic final end form shape of the emitter tip, with bright centre and more common dark centre. The stable operation of the cathode thus stable end form shape requires a delicate balance of parameters inside the gun which however can slightly change during cathode life time. This implies the necessity of analysing and periodical monitoring the current density distribution in e-beam. Four methods enabling this measurement are presented.
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Monte-Carlo simulation of proximity effect in e-beam lithography
Urbánek, Michal ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Krátký, Stanislav ; Matějka, Milan ; Horáček, Miroslav ; Chlumská, Jana
E–beam lithography is the most used pattern generation technique for academic and research prototyping. During this patterning by e–beam into resist layer, several effects occur which change the resolution of intended patterns. Proximity effect is the dominant one which causes that patterning areas adjacent to the beam incidence point are exposed due to electron scattering effects in solid state. This contribution deals with Monte Carlo simulation of proximity effect for various accelerating beam voltage (15 kV, 50 kV, 100 kV), typically used in e–beam writers. Proximity effect simulation were carried out in free software Casino and commercial software MCS Control Center, where each of electron trajectory can be simulated (modeled). The radial density of absorbed energy is calculated for PMMA resist with various settings of resist thickness and substrate material. At the end, coefficients of proximity effect function were calculated for beam energy of 15 keV, 50 keV and 100 keV which is desirable for proximity effect correction.
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Comparison of ultimate resolution achieved by e-beam writers with shaped beam and with Gaussian beam
Krátký, Stanislav ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Matějka, Milan ; Urbánek, Michal ; Horáček, Miroslav ; Chlumská, Jana
This contribution deals with the comparison of two different e–beam writer systems. E–beam writer with rectangular shaped beam BS600 is the first system. This system works with electron energy of 15 keV. Vistec EBPG5000+ HR is the second system. That system uses the Gaussian beam for pattern generation and it can work with two different electrons energies of values 50 keV and 100 keV. The ultimate resolution of both systems is the main aspect of comparison. The achievable resolution was tested on patterns consisted of single lines, single dots (rectangles for e–beam writer with shaped beam) and small areas of periodic gratings. Silicon wafer was used as a substrate for resist deposition. Testing was carried out with two resists, PMMA as a standard resist for electron beam lithography, and HSQ resist as a material for ultimate resolution achievement. Process of pattern generation (exposition) is affected by the same undesirable effect (backscattering and forward scattering of electrons, proximity effect etc.). However, these effects contribute to final pattern (resolution) by various dispositions. These variations caused the different results for similar conditions (the same resist, dose, chemical developer etc.). Created patterns were measured and evaluated by using of atomic force microscope and scanning electron microscope.
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Lift-Off technique using different e-beam writers
Chlumská, Jana ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Krátký, Stanislav ; Matějka, Milan ; Urbánek, Michal ; Horáček, Miroslav
This paper deals with lift–off technique performed by the way of electron beam lithography. Lift–off is a technique mainly used for preparation of metallic patterns and unlike etching it is an additive technique using a sacrificial material – e.g. e–beam resist PMMA. In this paper we discussed technique of preparation of lift–off mask on two different e–beam writing systems. The first system was BS600 – e–beam writer with rectangular variable shaped beam working with 15keV. The second system was Vistec EBPG5000+ HR – e–beam writer with Gaussian shape beam working with 50 keV and 100 keV. The PMMA resist single layer and bi–layer was used for the lift–off mask preparation. As a material for creation of metallic pattern, magnetron sputtered chromium was used. Atomic force microscope, scanning electron microscope and contact profilometer were used to measure and evaluate the results of this process.
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Microstructuring of metallic layers for sensor applications
Kolařík, Vladimír ; Krátký, Stanislav ; Urbánek, Michal ; Matějka, Milan ; Chlumská, Jana ; Horáček, Miroslav
This contribution deals with a patterning of thin metallic layers using the masking technique by electron beam lithography. It is mainly concentrated on procedures to prepare finger structure in thin Gold layer on electrically isolated Silicon wafer. Both positive and negative tone resists are used for patterning. The thin layer is structured by the wet etching or by the lift-off technique. The prepared structures are intended to be used as a conductivity sensor for a variety of sensor applications. Patterning of the thin layer is performed by the e-beam writer with shaped rectangular beam BS600 by direct writing (without the glass photo mask). Besides the main technology process based on the direct-write e-beam lithography, other auxiliary issues are also discussed such as stitching and overlay precision of the process, throughput of this approach, issues of the thin layer adhesion on the substrate, inter-operation control and measurement techniques.
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E-beam pattern generator BS600 and technology zoom
Kolařík, Vladimír ; Horáček, Miroslav ; Matějka, František ; Matějka, Milan ; Urbánek, Michal ; Krátký, Stanislav ; Král, Stanislav ; Bok, Jan
This contribution deals with an electron beam pattern generator (ELG) working with a rectangular shape variable size electron beam originally developed at Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI), later on commercialized as a BS600 series by former company Tesla, and recently upgraded by ISI cooperating with several partners. The key issue of this paper is a recently developed exposure mode which is called Technology Zoom (TZ mode) since its original concept until the recent progress. This ELG operating in the TZ mode provides three main advantages when compared to the standard exposure mode: higher exposure speed due to increased beam current density; finer stamp size adjustment and sharper stamp shape due to the stronger size reduction of the shaping aperture. Further, we discussed also some drawbacks and practical issues of the TZ mode. And finally, we summarize some results on real exposure examples. The new exposure mode (together with other recent upgrades) makes the BS600 pattern generator very useful for the nanotechnology patterning tasks and challenges.
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Nano modification of the W(100)/ZrO electron emitter tip using reactive ion etching
Horáček, Miroslav ; Matějka, František ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Matějka, Milan ; Urbánek, Michal
The W(100)/ZrO electron emitter tip is typically prepared from a tungsten single-crystal shaft of a diameter of 125 μm using electrochemical anodic etching. In order to prepare an emitter for e-beam writer with a shaped beam it is desirable to etch the tip with a radius around 100 nm. Despite the anodic etching is precisely controlled using dedicated software, the desired final form shape of the emitter tip is not achieved in every case. The correcting anodic etching is not possible due to the technology principle of the etching itself. We present in this contribution the procedure that modifies/repairs the tungsten tip shape in a nanoscale region using a reactive ion etching (RIE) in CF4 + O2 gaseous mix in a barrel type reactor at the radio frequency of 13,56 MHz and the working pressure of 1000 Pa. The change of the geometry after the RIE process is checked using a high resolution scanning electron microscope. The influence of the tip modification of the activated thermal-field W(100)/ZrO electron emitter on its emission characteristics is also presented.
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