The SPAM project (Supra-disciplinary approach to research and training in surface Physics for Advanced Manufacturing) aims to bring together a team of promising researchers and supply them with the training required to advance in the field of surface physics. This will help usher in the breakthroughs required for optical lithography technology in order to be able to print features under 32nm for advanced semiconductor manufacturing. The training project will materialize in the
form of an ITN (Initial Training Network) governed by Marie Curie. The overall cost of the project is €4.3 million with €2.7 million of that going towards salaries and the remainder going towards other costs such as research training,
travelling, conferences
and management activities. The European Commission has guaranteed the funds for the four year duration of the project. The recruited researchers will be trained
by a pool of 12 renowned European partners who are respected experts in the field of surface physics and technologies. The partners will
act as mentors towards
individual researchers and assist them by applying a range of modules with set goals relating to their individual disciplines. These disciplines vary a vast amount, and include
advanced lithographic systems,
vacuum technology, high performance optical systems, micro and nano- electronics, nano-technology, applied optics,
surface physics, analysis and more. “When we started considering advancing
“Young researchers have gained further research training which helps them to develop their research skills and supports them in their research career”
The Supra-disciplinary Research Teams
(SRT’s) are split into four areas and are supported by five distinctive Training Exchange Pools (TEP’s). These are; surface conditioning and modification, surface/ interface metrology, surface conditioning and preparation, supporting science areas and complementary competence training. The SRT’s each have a unique, main research focus. The first SRT focuses on
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our technologies here in 2007, we could only scan at around 0.5 m/s. So we needed to find people who could help us find a new limit for immersion. We also wanted to develop a new hydrophobic coating. This new type of coating would allow us to reach far higher scan velocities. These are the main aims of our leg of the project.” said Michel. The second SRT is surface cleanliness
which focuses on condensing contamination at times when multilayer mirrors are exposed to extreme ultra violet light. In these cases, condensable hydrocarbons lead to carbonisation, so the SRT must set extreme rules for controlling them. The main aim for the team is to gain a deeper understanding
of the contamination
process and subsequently, limit the impact of the process as best they can. “This has major implications for industry
as our lithography machines involve optics which should last for about 7 years and if they don’t, that is not good value for money
When the surfaces of the table are too smooth, the tables tend to adhere the wafers too early. During manufacturing the tables are finely polished in order to get the perfect flatness. The SRT3 researchers aim at reducing the resulting unwanted adhesion either through imposing a well- defined roughness or by changing the surface energy of the surfaces. SRT-leader Edwin Gelinck sees good
possibilities in using the results of their work in fields where placement and accuracy of surfaces is very important. “In many areas adhesion is an unwanted phenomenon, e.g. in mechatronics and the MEMS industry,” explains Gelinck. “Research institutes such as TNO (the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research) can apply the results of the current work in these fields as well,
leading to important spin-offs from
our work.” The fourth and final SRT is metrology of
structured surfaces. The ambition of this SRT is two-fold: on the one hand, to extend the application range of ASML’s metrology
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contact line (in)stability. This element hopes to provide a better understanding of contact line dynamics - this is the line between water and air below the lens. This team which is coached by Michel Riepen has the task of studying flow phenomena in a complex environment with non-ideal fluids for immersion lithography system. They wish to increase the wafer scan velocity, which also requires higher wafer accelerations of more than 30m/s2.
for our customers. So now we’re using cleaning methods which limit contamination issues and will increase the life spans for these machines” says Maarten Van Kampen. “Our biggest question is; what is the key
source of contamination on these surfaces and how do we remove them?” The third SRT, entitled ‘Controlled Surface
Roughness’, is aimed at decreasing adhesion between the wafer table and the wafer.
applied surface
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