Short Programs

Nanostructure Fabrication [6.75s]

Date: July 12-16, 2010 | Tuition: $3,250 | Continuing Education Units (CEUs): 2.7

Course Summary  |  Learning Objectives  |  Who Should Attend  |  Schedule  |  Participants' Comments  |  About the Lecturers  |  Updates

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Course Summary

Methods of top-down and bottom-up nanofabrication will be discussed: we will focus primarily on methods of microscopy and lithography, especially optical, electron-beam, scanning-probe, and nanoimprint. In the area of microscopy, we will focus on optical microscopy, including various illumination/imaging modes and confocal microscopy. Fundamentals of fourier optics and diffraction-limits in imaging will be presented. We will then draw parallels to electron microscopy, discussing transmission, scanning-transmission, aberration-corrected electron microscopy, and scanning secondary-electron microscopy. We then discuss scanning-probe based microscopy. Approximately 1/3 of the course is occupied with a discussion of microscopy.

Lithography is treated starting with optical lithography, drawing close parallels with the previous discussion of microscopy. We discuss conformal-contact optical lithography (a little-known but extremely powerful method of 100-nm-scale nanofabrication), interference-based optical lithography, and nonlinear optical lithography. We then discuss methods of metrology for stage positioning and alignment, and treat scanning-probe-based lithography and nanoimprint lithography. Electron lithography will then be presented including cutting-edge methods of achieving sub-10-nm resolution in electron-beam lithography. Time permitting, the use of focused-ion-beams will also be discussed. The students will learn many of the applied methods for realizing high-throughput patterning combined with methods for sub-10-nm-resolution top-down (and "bottom-up" i.e. self-assembly-based) lithography.

We will finally discuss methods of pattern transfer such as etching and lift-off, focusing on how they can be applied to the sub-100-nm and even sub-10-nm patterning length scale. Practical issues for work in a laboratory will be discussed. A tour of the nanostructures laboratory at MIT will be arranged, highlighting the many custom-built one-of-a-kind tools used at the facility. Lectures will survey the latest research, and relate it to real-world applications. Lectures typically include many practical demonstrations of fundamental physical principles, and present how these principles relate to the effects observed in the nanofabrication tools discussed in the class. Lectures are typically highly interactive, and students are expected to participate and to read the course notes (which will be handed out on the first day) prior to the next day's discussions.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, students will know and understand the principles of nanofabrication and materials analysis methods including:

• optical microscopy
• optical lithography
• electron-beam microscopy
• electron-beam lithography
• ion-beam microscopy
• ion-beam lithography
• scanning-probe microscopy
• scanning-probe lithography
• nanoimprint lithography
• self-assembly
• resists
• alignment systems
• thin-film patterning using aqueous, ion, and plasma etching methods
• thin-film patterning using lift-off and electro-plating
• substrate cleaning
• cleanroom principles

1. Understand the concepts of lithographic and microscopic resolution and apply this knowledge to calculate resolution limits for lithographic and imaging/inspection tools.
2. Define the concepts of contrast and a transfer function for an optical system and explain their role in both microscopy and lithography.
3. Identify the factors that establish practical resolution limits for major microscopy and lithography approaches and explain the impact of these factors.
4. Understand how processing tools are applied to transfer nanostructured patterns into other (useful) materials.
5. Analyze and evaluate proposed approaches to material processing.

Who Should Attend

Research scientists from industrial research labs and national labs. Process engineers in the semiconductor industry involved in metrology and/or lithography, or those involved in other process steps, but where knowledge of lithography/metrology may benefit their work. They should be interested in learning more about techniques for next-generation and beyond-next-generation nanostructure fabrication, for example interested in methods of nanostructure prototyping and research. Also, managers and decision-makers interested in a contextual picture of various techniques and technologies for nanostructure fabrication will benefit from the breadth of topics surveyed in the course.

Course schedule and registration times

View 2009 Course Schedule

Class runs 9:00 am - 5:00 pm every day except Friday when it ends at 12:00 pm noon. Each day, except for Friday, includes two 15-minutes breaks, and a one-hour break for lunch.

Registration will be on Monday morning from 8:15 am - 8:45 am.

Participants' Comments

Researcher, University of California Irvine
"This course is excellent for any type of professional – CEOs, faculty members of a university, engineers trying to reengineer their careers, even new engineers. High value, dense material is provided and guides perfectly to study, work, and research in nanostructure fabrication."

Visiting Student, MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
“This course, together with the accompanying materials, provides a profound overview of today’s field of nanostructure technology in research and application. This course was introductory and challenging at the same time.”

President & CEO, Raith USA
“Professional education is vital for our company to deliver outstanding service to our customers who are scientists and engineers with nanofabrication interests. This is the only opportunity for our support team to get a well-rounded education in nanofabrication in a reasonable amount of time. This course will help our company empathize with our customers’ needs. All our sales and support employees will take this course so long as it is available.”

Assistant Chemical Engineer, KACST
“It was a great time attending [a course about] one of the useful methods for fabrication using the latest technology available in the research field and lectured by great experts in nanotechnology.”

About The Lecturers

Karl K. Berggren
Professor Berggren is the Emanuel E. Landsman (1958) Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, where he heads the Quantum Nanostructures and Nanofabrication Group. He is also Codirector of the Nanostructures Laboratory in the Research Laboratory of Electronics. He is also a core faculty member in the Microsystems Technology Laboratory (MTL). From December of 1996 to September of 2003, he served as a staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts.

His current research focuses on methods of sub-100-nm and sub-10-nm nanofabrication, especially applied to superconductive quantum circuits, photodetectors, high-speed superconductive electronics, and energy systems. His thesis work focused on nanolithographic methods using neutral atoms.

Professor Berggren teaches several classes at MIT, including 6.002, Circuits and Electronics; 6.781, Submicrometer and Nanometer Technology; and 6.728, Applied Quantum and Statistical Physics. His group research website is available at http://quantum.mit.edu/.

Henry I. Smith
Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at MIT.

For more information on Professor Smith's research and teaching activities you may visit http://www.rle.mit.edu/rleonline/people/HenryI.Smith.html.

Updates

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