Europe launches PLACYD, a large consortium to address DSA lithography

PLACYD, an EU funded consortium of industrial and academic collaborators and led by Arkema will establish a dedicated material manufacturing facility that allows the production of block copolymers meeting the rigorous standards required for their use in industry as nanolithographic templates.  PLACYD brings together researchers and industries to allow for the first time the integration of synthesis through to wafer scale production and system/device characterization. Partners include: CEA-Leti, STMicroelectronics, Intel IPLS, Mentor Graphics, ASML and other leading EU companies and research organizations.

Arkema hosted the kick-off meeting of the PLACYD project on February 18th in Paris, aiming to set up a full European Ecosystem dedicated to DSA technology with the support of key players of the semiconductor industry.

Part of the Seventh Framework European Programme (FP7) and funded by ENIAC JU (European Technology Platform for Nanoelectronics), this project will be led by Arkema for 3 years. Its aim is to develop and bring DSA materials to industrial maturity, as well as processes and integration schemes. It will contribute to establishing specific DSA design rules and developing specific software for device manufacture. Metrology and inspection requirements in the sub-10 nm range will be defined and implemented in next generation tools, and lastly, a full integration demonstration activity will be performed based at CEA-Leti to assess the efficiency of the whole solution.

Arkema has been developing Block Copolymer technology for decades for various applications. Based on this technology, the chemicals manufacturer has developed nanolithography materials in partnership with the CEA-Leti Institute and the LCPO laboratory. Through the PLACYD project, they will bring their know-how to the semiconductor industry. With the help of the PLACYD Consortium partners, a dedicated materials line will be set up on the Arkema Research Center site in Lacq (France) with the aim of delivering precisely defined, high purity, and highly reproducible materials on an industrial scale in order to enable supply to the semiconductor industry.

Meanwhile, new materials will be developed and optimized for next generation electronic chips.

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