Pushing the feature size down to 11 nm by interference photolithography with hyperbolic metamaterials under conventional UV light source

TL;DR

This paper introduces a plasmonic interference lithography method using hyperbolic metamaterials to achieve feature sizes as small as 11 nm with standard UV light, enabling low-cost, high-resolution nanofabrication.

Contribution

The study presents a novel HMM-based plasmonic lithography technique that surpasses traditional limits, achieving sub-12 nm features with conventional UV light sources.

Findings

Feature size down to 11 nm theoretically achievable.

HMM waveguides support high-k modes for superresolution.

Resolution can be tailored by material and dimension adjustments.

Abstract

Limited by the cost and complexity, superresolution lithography is hard to achieve through the traditional interference lithography. We here developed the plasmonic interference lithography technique by using a hyperbolic metamaterials (HMMs) / photoresist / metal plasmonic waveguide to push the feature sizes theoretically down to 16 nm and even to 11 nm at the wavelength of 365 nm with TM polarization. The waveguide based on the proposed HMMs can support high-k mode for superresolution lithography. Furthermore, plasmonic mode supported in the proposed lithography structure can be tailored by dimension of HMM and permittivity of the materials, which makes it possible to get higher resolution pattern under conventional UV light. Our findings open up an avenue to pushing the nanolithography node towards 10 nm for low-cost and large area fabrication under conventional UV light source.