DARPA taps Lucent-led team to boost IC fabrication

Sept. 8, 2004 – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded a $9.5-million contract to a team led by Lucent Technologies to develop a MEMS-based system that would enable faster and cheaper fabrication of integrated circuits, according to a news release.

The four-year contract, awarded by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego calls for the team to design and demonstrate spatial light modulators (SLM) for maskless optical lithography equipment. Masks, required in the process of imprinting patterns on semiconductor materials, are especially costly in low-volume applications, the release said.

The nanofabricated SLM technology, developed by Bell Labs, has features as small as 50 nanometers. Potential applications for the technology include homeland security and military communications. Lucent is working with Corning Tropel Corp., DuPont Photo Masks Inc., Lincoln Laboratories and ASML Holding NV.

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