Open Competition 1 - Electronics and Photonics

Reactive Atom Plasma (RAP) Processing-A Novel Process for Rapid Optics Fabrication

Sponsor: RAPT Industries

• Project Performance Period: 5/1/2003 - 5/31/2006
• Total project (est.): $3,512,442.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,950,000.00

Among the more challenging and costly tasks in modern manufacturing is the shaping, smoothing, and polishing of delicate components such as lenses, mirrors, and semiconductor wafers. The inability to shape and process these materials rapidly without damage greatly adds to the cost of components with complex shapes, such as aspherical optics for semiconductor lithography cameras. RAPT Industries proposes to develop and test a prototype system for etching and polishing optical and semiconductor materials 10 to 10,000 times faster than current methods while causing significantly less sub-surface damage. The 2.5-year project will focus on the process chemistries and control system needed to extend the capabilities of the reactive atom plasma (RAP) technique, first demonstrated on a laboratory scale at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The RAP method uses a chemically reactive jet of plasma gas as a machine tool to rapidly and precisely shape optical and semiconductor surfaces. Surfaces can be polished by the chemical action of the plasma. Because material is removed chemically, there is no subsurface damage. Under computer control, RAP processing can achieve precise, complex shapes; in principle it also can be used to deposit material, such as coatings. The company will design and build a second-generation prototype with enhanced performance characteristics--including improved stability and control of the plasma source, integrate etching and coating deposition capabilities into the same instrument, and work out the unique chemistry for each target material. The small start-up has been unable to secure venture capital funding because of the research uncertainties. ATP will fund the initial technology development work to enable the company to seek further financing. If successfully developed, RAP processing could produce polished, defect-free optics in hours instead of days, saving users of such components a combined total of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Just as importantly, the technique could help expand the market for precision aspheric optics. The technology also has important potential applications in semiconductor wafer processing, particularly for advanced silicon carbide wafers, which are extremely hard and, therefore, unusually difficult to polish.

For project information:

Peter S. Fiske, Ph.D., (925) 371-7278
peterfiske@raptindustries.com

ATP Project Manager

Gerald Castellucci, (301) 975-2435
gerald.castellucci@nist.gov