JEOL USA
will install the first e-beam direct-write-on-wafer lithography tool to support
nanoscience research in the Pacific Northwest when the University of Washington
takes delivery of a JEOL JBX-6300FS e-beam system. The system will be installed
in the state-funded Washington Technology Center Microfabrication Lab. Funding
for the tool acquisition was provided through a state-supported STAR researchers'
grant to Michael Hochberg, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, and
a matching grant from the Washington Research Foundation.
The JEOL JBX-6300FS Direct Write E-Beam Tool.
In addition to Professor Hochberg’s work in nanophotonics, the JEOL e-beam
tool will support nanoscience research throughout the University of Washington
and the region, in fields as diverse as bioengineering, nanoscale electronic
and magnetic device research, materials science, chemical engineering, chemistry,
mechanical engineering, and physics. The tool will be available to students
as well as researchers from several outside companies whose work includes MEMS
research and production/process development. The WTC is the only facility of
its type in the Pacific Northwest, offering a publicly-accessible clean room
and offering hands on R&D and training support.
The JBX-6300FS E-Beam Tool
“This is the most flexible, capable machine that you would buy to build
nanostructures,” Hochberg said of the JBX-6300FS. “This is a prototyping
machine – the kind of system used to prototype technologies that are still
five, ten, or twenty years out.”
The JEOL JBX-6300FS direct write e-beam system is capable of writing line widths
down to 8nm on substrates up to 200mm in diameter in both nano-lithography and
high throughput mode. It is a spot beam, vector scan, step and repeat lithography
system designed for small volume production as well as research and design or
“sandbox lithography.” The JBX-6300FS excels at nano-imprint lithography
(NIL), a method of fabricating next-generation nanometer scale patterns onto
65mm photo mask templates and finally creating the high resolution patterns
directly on wafers through a 1X nano-imprint process. In particular, this tool
will operate at 25 MHz scan rates and will offer a full 1-mm field size at 100
KV, as well as JEOL’s world-renowned ‘5’th lens’ nanolithography
mode for ultra-fine feature writing.
Multiple New U.S. Installations
The first U.S. installations of this new generation direct write e-beam system
were completed in 2007 at the University of Santa Barbara and a U.S. military
facility. A recent spate of orders for the system have come from university
and national laboratories for cross-disciplinary applications, all stressing
the multi-user aspect of the system.
Faculty and researchers from every science and engineering discipline are actively
involved in using electron beam technology to solve today’s challenging
and complex problems. Recently, medical devices with circuits patterned on them
by the 6300FS were designed to travel through the human body recording and/or
transmitting data, and gathering information. In another application, e-beam
created circuits were successfully used to translate shapes from a camera to
a blind patient’s optic system.
JEOL e-beam customers are confident in the reliability of their JEOL instruments
based on the company’s 42 years of expertise in e-beam system production
and a firm commitment to service, such as the standard 90% guaranteed uptime
and unlimited operation training. JEOL has been awarded for excellence in customer
satisfaction for eight consecutive years for field service for its extensive
line electron optical equipment.
JEOL is a leading supplier of electron beam lithography tools, ranging from
high volume photo mask equipment to wafer inspection tools. JEOL’s production
level direct write system, the JBX-9300FS, handles up to 300mm wafers. The company
offers a third direct write tool, the JBX-5500FS, which provides an entry level
alternative to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with e-beam writing
capability.