SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to evaluate the feasibility of customized next generation nanoscale technology which enables high volume manufacture of integrated circuits, leading to faster computing power and performance. Current progress in reaching next generation performance is limited by significant technical challenges in meeting high volume manufacturing requirements driving up the cost of electronics. These problems have plagued the industry for over 10 years. The research activity here considers alternative approaches in addressing the production rate issues which ultimately reduce cost to chipmakers and reduce energy consumption in the semiconductor industry, thereby providing greener high performance electronics at lower cost. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project are firstly to accelerate the arrival of next generation computing technology creating faster, smaller more powerful mobile devices and providing evolutionary advances in quality of life for a globally-social electronic community, and secondly to develop electronics which meet the world?s demand at reasonable cost and without substantial adverse impact on the environment, and thirdly to maintain the competitiveness in global supply and accessibility of next generation electronics.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project are to accelerate the arrival of next generation computing technology creating faster, smaller more powerful mobile devices, renewing the expected technological pace of development set by Moore's law, and to enable global access to next generation electronics. The technology developed here will enable new extreme ultraviolet lithography in semiconductor manufacturing. The developments will promote learning, understanding and capability in commercialization and scalability of nanotechnology engineering. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to evaluate the feasibility of new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technologies which enable high volume manufacture of Integrated Circuits at 14nm and smaller. Currently capital equipment manufacturers are facing significant challenges in meeting the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors requirements for high volume manufacturing of integrated circuit chips. This has caused severe ramifications to chipmakers on the success of next generation IC manufacturing and fabrication facility costs. Successful results from the work proposed would represent notable progress in high volume manufacturing using EUV capital equipment. The intellectual merit of this proposed work forms the basis of new state of the art industry architecture designed for volume manufacturing; a pursuit that would subsequently encourage new markets and applications using next generation technology overcoming cost challenges in high volume manufacturing processes.