The working group on "Nanostructuring and Nanodevices" has been established in January 1994. The research activities concentrate on the development of new technologies for the realization of nanostructures as well as on the development of new nanoelectronic devices.
Nanostructuring
The work in this group focuses on electron beam lithography. In particular
low energy electron beam lithography
is under
development. At low energies, backscattering effects in lithography are
negligiable. However, due to the small penetration depth of the low energy
electrons only thin resist layers can be exposed. Therefore, new pattern
transfer technologies have to be developed. A new fast Pattern
Generator
for the generation of arbitrairy shapes for electron beam
lithography is also under construction. These technologies can be applied
in the parallel e-beam lithography using an array
of micro columns
. This technique would enhance the throughput of electron
beam lithography systems considerably. Such an array is also being developed
in this working group.
Nanodevices
Scaling of conventional MOSFET devices has been an enormously successful
approach to achieve higher speeds and increased functional densities. For
both fundamental and practical reasons this cannot continue indefinitely.
The need to find a candidate successor technology capable of being scaled
down drives investigations of various quantum-based alternatives.
In the working group several nanoelectronic devices are realized and characterized.
Facilities
From the establishment of the working group on, a clean room laboratory
with nanostructuring facilities has been equipped with the following tools:
The devices can be characterized in a Helium cryostate with magnetic fields up to 10 Tesla.