Direct-write X-ray lithography using a hard X-ray Fresnel zone plate
Results are reported of direct-write X-ray lithography using a hard X-ray beam focused by a Fresnel zone plate with an outermost zone width of 40 nm. An X-ray beam at 7.5 keV focused to a nano-spot was employed to write arbitrary patterns on a photoresist thin film with a resolution better than 25 nm. The resulting pattern dimension depended significantly on the kind of underlying substrate, which was attributed to the lateral spread of electrons generated during X-ray irradiation. The proximity effect originated from the diffuse scattering near the focus and electron blur was also observed, which led to an increase in pattern dimension. Since focusing hard X-rays to below a 10 nm spot is currently available, the direct-write hard X-ray lithography developed in this work has the potential to be a promising future lithographic method.
Source: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation - Category: Physics Authors: Lee, S.Y.Noh, D.Y.Lee, H.C.Yu, C.-J.Hwu, Y.Kang, H.C. Tags: direct-write X-ray lithography X-ray writer Fresnel zone plate proximity effect backscattered electrons research papers Source Type: research