- 22 June 2005 -

TU Delft EBID world record

Dots of 0,7nm large and lines less than two nm width are created in a short time using E-Beam Induced Deposition by Delft researchers Dr Kees Hagen and Ir. Willem van Dorp. Made of tungsten, the lines are fifty times thinner than currently used on a chip.

The researchers published an article in Nanoletters showing that EBID (Electron Beam Induced Deposition) unlocks a new world of nanoscience in the 1 to 10 nm scale and could play a role in the chip industry.

The researchers from Prof Dr Ir Pieter Kruit’s department of Particle Optics, had to travel to Arizona State University which had the machine capable of allowing allowing them to realise their ideas.

The machine shoots a narrow beam of electrons onto a surface, after which electrons with a much lower energy level return from the surface. Those electrons can ‘pin down’ atoms from molecules on the surface. After a while, a dot of these atoms appears, or, when using a moving electron beam, a line of the atoms is created.

Until now, it was thought that the returning atoms were diffused to such an extent that even with a very narrow e-beam, lines of less than 15 nm were impossible to create. Hagen and Van Dorp have disproved this theory with their record and believe it is possible to improve even further and better the record.

With funding from the innovation programmes NanoImpuls and NanoNed, and in cooperation with the industry and TNO-Industrie en Techniek, Hagen will develop a machine capable of this. It will hopefully also be usable in more practical applications. The company Mapper Lithography BV, originates from TU Delft,and is specialised in e-beams and chip fabrication.