Nanolithography
sizes. In this example, the lithography process is done in contact mode, and, therefore, imaging in non-contact mode is an option. However, aſter the manipulation, it is important to take the image using non-contact mode to avoid disturbing the particles present on the sample. Aſter verifying success of the lithography
Figure 1: Park SmartLitho™ software: A) Vision and monitoring view; B) Nanolithography mode panel; C) Lithography design area; D) Objects list; E) Objects edit panel.
process, the final image is taken and exported to the analysis soſtware called Park XEI™ [4]. In this case, we can see that the previously drawn line is around 35 nm in width, and the newly drawn one is 47 nm (Figure 2, bottom). Both lines are drawn using the same lithography parameters. Nevertheless, the line on the right side, drawn first, is observed to be narrower than the oxide line on the leſt. Tis might be due to performing the lithography in contact mode. In contact mode, the tip is rubbed against the sample surface as the lines are drawn. Te rubbing can cause the end of the tip to wear out and blunt. Te blunted tip can fabricate wider oxide lines than the ones drawn with a sharper tip [1,5]. We can see that the resulting line-height is
approximately 1.4 nm for both lines when adding another cursor. Park XEI soſtware is capable of showing a three-dimensional rendering of the image taken (Figure 2, top right). With the 3D representation, we note that the lines drawn during this oxide growth process have a lower height than the nanoparticles on the surface.
Conclusion Tis article discusses the use of Park
Figure 2: Nanolithography process: (top left) Post-scan image; (top right) 3D view; (bottom) Line profile plotted of green line seen in top left.
scanner moves up and down and adjusts its height to maintain a constant vibration amplitude. Te height adjustment of the scanner thus reflects the height change on the sample surface. Te AFM raster scans and detects the height change point-by- point in the XY-direction to map out the three-dimensional surface topography. Te tip approaches the surface, and the image is retaken promptly with the same parameters as the baseline AFM image. Te newly drawn line is clearly visible and parallel to the previously drawn line (Figure 2, top leſt). Note that the image position remains the same, showing the control of the XY-scanner, separate from the Z-scanner, even at smaller scan
2020 November •
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SmartLitho™ soſtware to design and customize nanoscale oxide patterns using a Park NX10 AFM. With only a few seconds of runtime, this simple test case demonstrates a bias-assisted nanolithography process, which successfully generates oxide patterns as narrow as 35 nm in width. Although the process itself employs contact mode, true non-contact mode before and aſter the operation validates that the new oxide line is indeed parallel to the line in the baseline image. Tis test case also demonstrates the scanning and imaging precision of Park’s XY-scanner. Overall, this study shows that the bias mode in the SmartLitho soſtware is an excellent tool for generating well-defined nanoscale patterns and features.
References [1] E Pinilla-Cienfuegos et al., Appl Sciences 6 (2016) 250–61. [2] JP Pineda et al., NANOscientific 18 (2020) 21–23. [3] Park Systems (2020) Park SmartScan™.
https://parksystems.com/products/operating-soſtware/ park-smartscan.
[4] Park Systems (2020) XEI Data Processing and Analysis.
https://parksystems.com/manuals-soſtware.
[5] J Voves, Nanocon (Proceedings) 20 (2009) 22–29. 13
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