RESEARCH OVERVIEW

IRG 1

IRG 2

IRG 3

RESEARCH NUGGETS

FACULTY LABS

RESEARCH: IRG 3

System Engineering and Design for Nanomanufacturing

To make the innovative nanoscale processes commercially viable, manufacturing tools and systems must be developed to scale-up these processes with high throughput and high yield. SINAM will develop system engineering strategies and a Nanomanufacturing Testbed to address these challenges. The testbed, which will include PIL, UMIL, and HTBP manufacturing cells, and embed CAD/CAM and metrology, involves the process optimization, machine tool sensing and control, and system engineering practice. The testbed will also serve as a collaborative platform with our industrial partners for product development.

New fabrication processes can only mature through gradual adoption by a small but growing user community. SINAM will develop a novel design interface: 3D nano-CAD. This interactive computer aided design approach will allow efficient interactions between product design and process development. First, the initial 3D nano-structures will be integrated with the materials properties to build a 3D geometrical model. Then the fabrication simulators and performance simulators will be employed to predict the device performances. After fabrication, the nano-structures’ performance are characterized and compared with the simulation predictions by the nano-CAD simulators. This comparison will create feedback to the designer as guidance towards the final optimization of material selection, geometric configuration, and process control parameters of the 3D nano-structures. Tolerance Design issues will be addressed from the structure level to the device performance level.

The key to sub-100nm nanomanufacturing lies in synergistic integration of precision engineering and control engineering under a multi-scale system architecture. As shown in Fig. 7, a prototype 6-DOF magnetically suspended 3D-Subatomic Measuring Machine (SAMM) has demonstrated a static precision of 0.3nm using PID control and 1nm relocation precision has been achieved over the entire 25x2um area. It will be used in the initial phase of the project to further address the dynamic precision required by the processes.

At the system level, process scalablility and reliability will be our major driving force. Our initial process development and integration efforts will be dedicated to the established failure mechanisms such as stress concentration, adhesion and fracture, electrical parasitic capacitance and thermal shock. To overcome the proven failure mechanisms, we will identify the optimal process sequence and conditions based on the physics driven process and on the performance simulators. The above research will form the basis of the prototype nanomanufacturing system. The multi-scale architecture will allow us to seamlessly integrate SINAM’s system with existing industrial capabilities. Thus, our die-to-die nanomanufacturing process will be readily scaled-up to wafer level production.