TDI MxL Nanolithography (Patents include 6,849,558 and 7,345,002)

MxL-10 Nanolithography Tool For high resolution patterning, the MxL-10 is a nanolithography tool that uses resist-coated water-soluble templates to produce sub-50 nm features over large-area substrates in less than one minute cycle time. With a range of applications from photonics to semiconductor manufacturing, the MxL-10 completes a turn-key patented solution to nanolithography, containing all necessary equipment and materials when combined patented water-soluble pre-coated templates from TDI. The advantages of the MxL-10 when coupled with pre-coated soluble templates include: high yields with low defect density by eliminating template separation; high aspect ratio features; high throughput of large area substrates; cost effective processing; dry resist processing; a range of functional material transfers; multi-level patterning; and many other advances. The process technology is tested and production-proven through an initial set of customers and applications. Functional Soluble Templates High resolution, conformal nanopatterning templates, which dissolve in water but not in most functional materials such as resist and other organic polymers, enable the MxL class of processes, replicated conveniently from large area master topography.After the formation of the PVA template, it is coated with a functional material layer, such as resist for use as an etch mask, post processed, inspected, packaged, and shipped to the user, thereby providing an efficient, convenient dry product ready for immediate cost effective implementation while eliminating the need for resist tracks.