Smoother than a baby's....(Vacuum/Thin Film)

R & D, September, 2003

The Ion Beam Thin-Film Planarization Process, developed by Paul Mirkarimi at Lawrence Livermore (Calif.) National Laboratory, uses a thin-film coating and ion beam etching technique with silicon-based films to generate nearly perfect surfaces. The primary application of this technique is to fabricate components for the next generation of lithography tools used in the manufacture of ICs.

The tool is the only device known that has the capability of smoothing 50-nm-dia substrate particles. Two key steps enhance the smoothing properties of the coating process. The first is to employ ion etching during multi-layer deposition in a sequential coating and etching process. The second step is based on the discovery that etching of the Si layers plays a pivotal role in...

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