Digital inverse patterning solutions for fabrication of high-fidelity microstructures in spatial light modulator...

Area of Science:

• Micro-nano device manufacturing
• Advanced lithography techniques
• Optical engineering

Background:

• Digital mask projection lithography (DMPL) offers mask-free, flexible, and low-cost patterning.
• Conventional DMPL struggles with sub-wavelength feature sizes due to challenges in designing digital mask modulation coefficients.
• Spatial light modulators (SLMs) are key components in DMPL, but their precise control for sub-wavelength patterning remains difficult.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Digital Inversion Lithography Technology (DILT) as a novel method for designing digital mask modulation coefficients.
• To address the limitations of conventional DMPL in high-fidelity pattern transfer for sub-wavelength features.
• To improve the accuracy and reliability of DMPL for advanced micro-nano device fabrication.

Main Methods:

• Developed a digital inversion approach to reverse engineer modulation coefficients for digital masks.
• Applied DILT to binary amplitude modulation scenarios for digital mask design.
• Applied DILT to gray amplitude modulation scenarios for digital mask design.

Main Results:

• DILT significantly reduced pattern errors (PE) in binary amplitude modulation to 0.26 times the original error.
• DILT achieved a remarkable reduction in PE for gray amplitude modulation, reaching 0.05 times the original error.
• The results demonstrate a substantial improvement in the high-fidelity transfer of target layouts.

Conclusions:

• DILT provides a novel and effective solution for designing digital masks in DMPL.
• The technology significantly enhances the accuracy of pattern transfer, especially for sub-wavelength features.
• DILT enables higher precision and reliability in DMPL, advancing micro-nano device manufacturing capabilities.