Technical Paper Round-Up: April 5


Neuromorphic chips, transistor defect detection, quantum, pellicles, BEV mobile charging, copper wire bonding, LrWPAN, batteries and superconductivity top the past week's technical papers. They also point to a rising level of government investment, and collaborations between schools that historically haven't worked closely together, including one that involves schools on different continents. ... » read more

Investigation of the Resistivity and Emissivity of a Pellicle Membrane for EUV Lithography


New technical paper from Hanyang University and University of Texas at Dallas. Abstract "A pellicle is a thin membrane structure that protects an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask from contamination during the exposure process. However, its limited transmittance induces unwanted heating owing to the absorption of EUV photons. The rupture of the EUV pellicle can be avoided by improving its ther... » read more

Gearing Up For High-NA EUV


The semiconductor industry is moving full speed ahead to develop high-NA EUV, but bringing up this next generation lithography system and the associated infrastructure remains a monumental and expensive task. ASML has been developing its high-numerical aperture (high-NA) EUV lithography line for some time. Basically, high-NA EUV scanners are the follow-on to today’s EUV lithography systems... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Oct. 12


MoSi2 pellicles for EUV Hanyang University has presented a paper that describes a novel molybdenum disilicide (MoSi2) pellicle membrane for use in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. With a 28nm thickness, a MoSi2 membrane has demonstrated a 89.33% transmittance for EUV lithography. The pellicle technology is still in R&D. MoSi2, which is a silicide of molybdenum, is a refractory cer... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Aug. 10


EUV mask cleaning process TSMC has developed a new dry-clean technology for photomasks used in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, a move that appears to solve some major problems in the fab. TSMC and Samsung are in production with EUV lithography at advanced nodes, but there are still several challenges with the photomasks and other parts of the technology. Using 13.5nm wavelengths, EUV... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: June 18


Multi-value logic transistor Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas, Hanyang University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Yonsei University, Kookmin University, and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology developed and fabricated a transistor capable of storing intermediate values between 0 and 1. Such a multi-value logic transistor would allow more operations ... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Feb. 6


Recycling cathodes Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego developed an energy-efficient recycling process that restores used cathodes from spent lithium ion batteries. The process involves harvesting the degraded cathode particles from a used battery and then boiling and heat treating them. In new batteries built with the cathodes, charge storage capacity, charging time and ba... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Sept. 5


Energy-harvesting yarn Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and Hanyang University in South Korea developed a carbon nanotube yarn that generates electricity when stretched or twisted. Possible applications for the so-called "twistron" yarns include harvesting energy from the motion of ocean waves or from temperature fluctuations. When sewn into a shirt, these yarns served as a sel... » read more

Power/Performance Bits: Aug. 1


Concentrating photovoltaics Engineers at Penn State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tested a new concentrating photovoltaic solar system, which they say can produce over 50% more energy per day than standard silicon solar cells. In contrast to silicon solar panels, which currently dominate the market at 15 to 20 percent efficiency, concentrating photovoltaics (... » read more

System Bits: Sept. 24


Printing nanostructures with self-assembling material A multi-institutional team of engineers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago and Hanyang University in Korea has developed a new approach to the fabrication of nanostructures for the semiconductor and magnetic storage industries. The approach combines top-down advanced ink-jet printing technology... » read more

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