A Compliant Nano-manipulator-based Scanning Probe Lithography System

Scanning probe lithography is a promising technology to achieve nano-fabrication with high precision and high throughput. However, the fabrication area of scanning probe lithography is a great challenge that limits its further advance. To tackle this challenge, a compliant nano-manipulator-based scanning probe lithography system is proposed, which supports nano-lithography in a millimeter range and avoids stitching errors in principle. In addition, the process parameters of nano-fabrication directly affect the fabrication results, yet the selection of process parameters requires extensive experiments and is very time-consuming. To this end, a coarse-to-fine nano-fabrication process method is proposed, which is able to rapidly determine the optimal process parameters. Based on the prototyping system and the proposed process method, nano-lithography experiments are conducted on spin-coated poly(methyl methacrylate) silicon wafers. The experimental results show that the system supports high-speed nano-lithography at 3.56 mm/s with a feature size of 17.94 nm and processes nanostructures with 40 nm pitch and a feature size of 17.16 nm.