new center, CHiPPS which is led by Berkeley Lab microelectronics expert Ricardo Ruiz. Accelerating Next-Gen Microelectronics
The researchers’ work could help chip manufacturers make even smaller, more powerful chips, and support the goals of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act, which aims to mitigate supply chain disruptions by helping the U.S. design and produce the world’s most advanced chips domestically.
To unpack that a little bit, that means that our focus lies in the scientific exploration of an advanced method known as extreme ultraviolet lithography. The light-sensitive chemical films called photoresists or “resists” in use today for microchip production do not efficiently absorb EUV radiation, and little is known about how these photoresists interact with EUV light.At CHiPPS, we are taking this opportunity to design new photoresist materials specifically designed to work with EUV radiation.
Unfortunately, conventional deep UV photoresists are very poor absorbers at EUV wavelengths. Furthermore, when EUV light does get absorbed, its high-energy photons kick electrons off the resist and substrate materials. This in turn pushes other “secondary” electrons around in a cascading event. Everyone in the team is very excited to work together. We’re exploring new physics and new chemistry, and we all have the same goal: Pushing the boundaries of patterning materials so we can help the microchip industry stay ahead of Moore’s Law.
There are only a few places in the world where people can do research with EUV light because it’s very expensive and very difficult to make EUV light and EUV optics. For example, a first-generation EUV lithography tool costs more than $100 million. That’s not something that research labs or even microchip industries can afford to buy just for research.
In our pursuit of a comprehensive understanding of all chemical and physical phenomena, modeling and simulation research around EUV patterning is key.
At CHiPPS, we are also exploring “bottom-up” hierarchical materials and processes as a potential solution to overcome the limitations of photoresist materials. For example, Argonne’s Paul Nealey is focused on developing highly customizable block copolymer materials for lithographic features as small as 4 nanometers. Paul, Stacey, and I are collaborating to employ various self-assembly and pattern transfer methods.
To effectively monitor and validate our materials and processes, CHiPPS will rely on a comprehensive characterization suite developed by Cheng Wang, Oleg Kostko, Patrick Naulleau, Weilun Chau , and Dahyun Oh. This suite allows us to image buried features in resist materials, assess the impact of EUV exposure, study secondary electron behavior, measure interface roughness, and understand the role of interfaces in the patterning process.
After I completed my Ph.D. at Vanderbilt, I continued to specialize in organic electronic materials as a postdoctoral scholar at Cornell University. After that I spent 15 years in the private sector at IBM Research, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, and most recently at Western Digital where I did research on various nanofabrication and self-assembling techniques for semiconductor, magnetic storage, and memory technologies until I joined Berkeley Lab at the end of 2019.
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