Communications of the ACM
MIT Research Looks to Extend Moore's Law
New directed self-assembly techniques developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology could resolve some issues associated with the lithographic techniques typically used in the conventional semiconductor manufacturing process.
Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed directed self-assembly (DSA) techniques which they say resolve the issues associated with the main lithography techniques used in the conventional semiconductor manufacturing process, including photolithography and electron-beam lithography.
The researchers say the DSA technique is based on a simplified template, in which complex patterns of lines, bends, and junctions with feature sizes below 20 nm can be made using block copolymer self-assembly. "DSA is of great interest to manufacturers as scaling using traditional patterning techniques has become increasingly more challenging and costly," says Semiconductor Research Corp.'s Bob Havermann.
The MIT researchers say they developed a simple way to design a template to achieve a specific block copolymer pattern over a large area. "To increase the density of transistors in a given area, the pitch of the features in a transistor should be scaled down, but the increasing time and cost of manufacturing such fine and dense features becomes more problematic," says MIT professor Caroline Ross. "Our research suggests a solution to this problem."
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