Construction of a Line Segment Fabrication Model of Super-Resolution Near Field Photolithography and Parameters Analysis

Abstract

This study proposes a method to combine near field photolithography with thermal-induced superresolution and conducts simulation and analysis on line segment fabrication. The proposed technique involves passing a laser beam through an optical fiber probe plated with aluminum on a thin indium film (approximately 10 nm in thickness), which created a melted aperture narrower than width of the laser beam, leading to the formation of a melted region and a crystalline region. The penetration rates of each region differed, resulting in the generation of thermal-induced super resolution. This study divided the photoresist into finite nodes and the use of an exposure energy density model, an exposure model, and a development model enabled the simulation of widths and profiles of line segments fabricated with super-resolution NFP. Using the Taguchi method, the optimal combination of parameter levels for line segment fabrication with super-resolution near field photolithography was identified as A1B1C3D2. In addition, analysis of variance demonstrated that probe aperture (PA) has the greatest influence on line width (LW) during the experiment, with a contribution degree of 46.9%. Secondary to this influence was exposure energy/ m, with a contribution degree of 41.7%. The influences of development time (DT) and indium thickness (IT) were not apparent.