February 28, 2008 — SEMATECH, an association of semiconductor technology developers, has purchased the new Imprio 300 tool from Molecular Imprints (MII) to demonstrate the feasibility of nanoimprint lithography for semiconductor production at 32nm and below. Initial work will focus on demonstrating and enhancing overlay performance, and identify development areas to accelerate the introduction of the technology into manufacturing. Delivery is scheduled for mid-2008.

SEMATECH’s involvement with nanoimprint lithography follows MII’s work with Toshiba, which last fall said it isolated 18nm features with defect levels “very similar” to those seen in the early days of immersion lithography.

The industry’s progression to sub-32nm node semiconductor manufacturing comes with increasing costs and challenges, with one of the notable areas in extending lithography technologies and development of new ones. “One of SEMATECH’s goals is to identify cost-effective and manufacturable technologies,” said Michael Lercel, lithography director at SEMATECH, in a statement. “Nanoimprint has demonstrated excellent resolution and image fidelity, so now is the time to evaluate its manufacturability.

“MII’s S-FIL technology is ideally suited for patterning critical layers in sub-32nm devices, and we anticipate that successful prototyping at the 32nm node will lead to volume manufacturing adoption,” stated Mark Melliar-Smith, CEO of Molecular Imprints, adding that “increasing industry investment in the imprint technology roadmap will accelerate its introduction into manufacturing.”

MII says its step-and-flash imprint litho technology (“S-FIL”) replicates ultrahigh resolution e-beam litho, but with costs likened to dry optical lithography, the company noted, adding that its technology has demonstrated sub-10nm resolution patterning capability.