Engineers at the Advanced Materials Research Center (AMRC) in Austin are investigating a nanoscale approach to metrology that will allow them to examine new semiconductor structures at the atomic level, and so prepare the way for next-generation electronics.
The new methodology uses computer modeling designed for use with aberration‑corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM), an imaging method that can resolve as small as 0.7 Angstrom (Å). Many inter-atomic spacings in crystals, including silicon, have dimensions less than 0.1 nm (1 Å).
This capability of viewing atom-sized structures will push forward the feasibility of advanced semiconductor structures such as fin-shaped field-effect transistors (FinFETs,) which are hoped-for replacements for conventional CMOS transistors that are running up against fundamental physical limitations.
“Aberration correction has changed the resolution of electron microscopy and opened new windows on the atomic structure of nanotechnology,” said Alain Diebold, a SEMATECH Senior Fellow and internationally recognized metrology expert. “By adding modeling, we can simulate images much more accurately, and truly understand what we are seeing.”
The AMRC project is being led by Dr. Brian Korgel, University of Texas at Austin chemical engineering professor, in consultation with Diebold. Its aim is to employ unique software to simulate electron diffraction patterns of nanowires, whose diameters of less than 20 nm are similar to the dimensions of next-generation transistor gates and the fin-like structure of FinFETs. However, since nanowires are simpler structures, using them will allow researchers to refine their new microscopy techniques for more demanding metrology in the future.
“In the past, metrology has had trouble keeping up with the rapid advances in semiconductor scaling,” said Diebold. “Now we have a tool that gives us the potential to understand surface and interface morphology, and atomic structure, in ways that we have never been able to do before. It gives us a big leg up in understanding the structures of future devices.”
Related stories:
Bon MOT: Innovative atom trap catches highly magnetic atoms
A research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland has succeeded in cooling atoms of a rare-earth element, erbium, to within two millionths of a degree of absolute zero using a novel trapping and laser cooling technique. Their recent report is a major step towards a capability to capture, cool and manipulate individual atoms of erbium, an element with unique optical properties that promises highly sensitive nanoscale force or magnetic sensors, as well as single-photon sources and amplifiers at telecommunications wavelengths. It also may have applications in quantum computing devices.
High-power high-brightness diode lasers
On the occasion of the laser trade fair "Laser 2005" in Munich, the Berlin-based research institution Ferdinand-Braun-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) presents novel high-power high-brightness diode lasers. These distributed feedback (DFB) lasers feature a small spectral line width. They are characterized by high beam-quality, a stable wavelength and a high output power at the same time. Last but not least, comparable light sources are much higher priced than the DFB lasers which can be produced on a large-scale at significantly lower costs.
NIST Unveils Atom-based Standards
Gaithersburg, MD--Device features on computer chips as small as 40 nanometers (nm) wide—less than one-thousandth the width of a human hair—can now be measured reliably thanks to new test structures developed by a team of physicists, engineers, and statisticians at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), SEMATECH, and other collaborators. The test structures are replicated on reference materials that will allow better calibration of tools that monitor the manufacturing of microprocessors and similar integrated circuits.
Atoms Precision Placement Helps Building Nanoscale Devices
In an effort to put more science into the largely trial and error building of nanostructures, physicists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (
NIST) have demonstrated new methods for placing what are typically unruly individual
atoms at precise locations on a crystal surface. Reported in the Sept. 9, 2004, online version of the journal Science, the advance enables scientists to observe and control, for the first time, the movement of a single atom back and forth between neighboring locations on a crystal and should make it easier to efficiently build nanoscale devices "from the bottom up," atom by atom.
KlA-Tencor Unveiled Atomic Force Line Monitoring Solution For 90-/65-nm IC Production
KLA-Tencor unveiled the AF-LM 300—the first true line monitoring solution for trench depth and surface planarity process control based on atomic force microscopy (AFM). Until now, traditional AFMs have lacked the throughput and reliability needed for many inline process monitoring applications. Delivering high reliability, unmatched ease of use and significantly increased throughput compared to traditional AFMs, the AF-LM 300 enables chipmakers to support up to 100 percent lot sampling on the production floor at the 90-nm and 65-nm nodes—providing tighter process monitoring, which in turn helps chipmakers produce better performing and higher yielding devices. Leading IC manufacturers like Infineon Technologies have installed the AF-LM 300 in their advanced fabs for evaluation, and KLA-Tencor has received multiple orders for the new system.
Visualizing atomic-scale acoustic wavesin nanostructures
Acoustic waves play many everyday roles - from communication between people to ultrasound imaging. Now the highest frequency acoustic waves in materials, with nearly atomic-scale wavelengths, promise to be useful probes of nanostructures such as LED lights. However, detecting them isn't so easy.
Discovery by UC Riverside physicists could enable development of faster computers
Roland Kawakami's lab proposes a simple technique for controlling electron spin and current flow
Physicists at UC Riverside have made an accidental discovery in the lab that has potential to change how information in computers can be transported or stored. Dependent on the "spin" of electrons, a property electrons possess that makes them behave like tiny magnets, the discovery could help in the development of spin-based semiconductor technology such as ultrahigh-speed computers.
New ORNL process brings nanoparticles into focus
Scientists can study the biological impacts of engineered nanomaterials on cells within the body with greater resolution than ever because of a procedure developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.