Nanolithography using spin-coatable ZrO2 resist and its application to sub-10 nm direct pattern transfer on compound semiconductors

摘要

A typical method for sub-micrometer compound semiconductor dry etching utilizes polymethylmethacrylate ( PMMA) to transfer patterns to SiO2 as intermediate masks, which limits its ability to obtain etching resolutions approaching sub-10 nm. We report a new approach for direct sub-10 nm pattern transfer using sol-gel derived spin-coatable ZrO2 resist as the mask. The optimal dose of ZrO2 resist is similar to 160 mC cm(-2). The sample InP compound semiconductor etching selectivity to ZrO2 is over 13:1, with high aspect ratio of 35:1. The smallest etching feature is 9 nm. These results will be very useful for realizing various challenging nanoscale photonic and electronic devices and circuits.