GOALI: Nanoscale Printing and Machining using Electron Beams in Liquids

Nearly all nanomanufacturing processes with industrially relevant throughput require the replication of master templates (molds, masks, etc.) at some point. As a result, three specific barriers to manufacturability demand new solutions: (1) rapid prototyping before committing to a production template, (2) repair of template errors and defects both before and during production, and (3) product debugging and trimming before committing to revised templates. Focused electron-beam induced processing (FEBIP) could meet these needs if the available materials, purity, and throughput were not limited by the associated gas-phase reactants. The proposed GOALI research effort introduces new processes and integration methods based on focused electron-beam induced deposition and etching in bulk liquids. This effort will yield deeper understanding of the physical and chemical mechanisms governing liquid-phase FEBIP while establishing a foundation of process and materials knowledge that can be applied to nanomanufacturing applications such as lithographic mask and imprint template repair, integrated circuit debugging, and rapid prototyping of nanoscale devices.