Open Competition 1 - Electronics and Photonics

ACIM "Point*Suns": Concentrating Energy Through Silent Sound and Clean Water

Sponsor: Uncopiers, Inc.

• Project Performance Period: 9/1/2001 - 8/31/2004
• Total project (est.): $2,310,730.00
• Requested ATP funds: $2,000,000.00

The semiconductor industry's success in continually making smaller, faster, cheaper, and more reliable microchips is due in part to advances in precision wafer cleaning technology. But the present lack of methods for detecting contaminating particles smaller than 50 nanometers (nm) -- about one-third the size of the smallest defects registered today -- will threaten the industry's growth within the next few years. Uncopiers, Inc., intends to overcome this barrier by building and demonstrating an energy-efficient, chemical-free wafer cleaning and inspection instrument that detects and removes nanoparticles using only silent sound and water. This novel technology will create tiny points of precisely controlled energy density, Point*Suns, which can be as hot as the sun. Point*Suns are effective only at the point of deployment; they do not affect the surrounding area. The company has made progress in developing this process and using it for cleaning and will focus the three-year ATP project on extending it to particle detection, integration of functions, and a prototype that will be evaluated by Uncopiers and its strategic partners. Technical challenges include effective elimination of particles on patterned wafers without damage to surface features, and detection of particles with dimensions of 50 nm or less while maintaining high throughput. If successfully developed, the new technology will detect and remove all nano-particulate defects (equivalent to sand grains on a baseball-field-size wafer), cost less than existing cleaning tools and particle detectors, and be at least 100 times faster than electron beam methods. It will be designed for use in existing fabrication lines and will save users an estimated $1.8 billion over 10 years. The ATP funding will enable development of the new tool by 2003, in time to support 100 nm-lithography, the next step in microchip miniaturization. In addition to helping the U.S. semiconductor industry maintain its market dominance, the technology also will have applications in many other areas, such as nuclear reactor safety monitoring, paint stripping, a variety of medical applications, and chemical-free ink removal for paper recycling.

For project information:

Lawrence Harbin, (202) 408-2779
lharbin@ix.netcom.com

ATP Project Manager

Purabi Mazumdar, (301) 975-4891
purabi.mazumdar@nist.gov