Nanolithography: Status and challenges

With the help of immersion lithography and multiple patterning, photolithography has been the key technology over the last decade in manufacturing of ICs, microchips and MEMS devices. Continuous rapid shrinking of feature size made the authorities to seek alternative patterning methods that can go beyond classic photographic limits. Some promising techniques have been proposed as next generation lithography and further technological progress are required to make them significant and reliable to meet the current demand. EUVL is considered as the main candidate for sub-10 nm manufacturing because of its process simplicity and reduced operating cost. Remarkable progress in EUVL has been made and the tools will be available for commercial operation soon. EBL, FIB and X-ray lithography are used for patterning in R&D, mask/mold fabrication and low volume chip design. DSA have already been realized in lab and further effort will be needed to make it as NGL solution. NIL has emerged attractively due to its simple process-steps, high-throughput, high-resolution and low cost and become one of the commercial platforms for nanofabrication.