This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 6724, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction, and the Conference Committee listing.

The amazing growth of the semiconductor industry over the past decades has been supported, and in many cases driven, by miniaturization of devices. Behind this has been one strong backbone - lithography. In the 1970's, devices had geometries of several micrometers, but now we are about to enter 45nm device pre-production and shortly after move it into volume-production. Immersion lithography, although having a short development time, is already in production and will become the primary technology driver. What we need to do now is identify the solutions for 32nm lithography. There are several candidates for 32nm lithography, such as EUVL, High Index Immersion and Double Patterning / Double Exposure. Other more esoteric technologies such as nanoimprint and maskless lithography have also been mentioned. In this paper, the present status of Immersion lithography will be reviewed and each of the 32nm candidates are reviewed.

The paper describes the design, modeling and fabrication techniques of bulk PZT actuators for MEMS deformable mirrors. Both the analytical model and finite element method are employed for performance simulation and structure optimization of the bulk PZT actuator. According to the simulation results, thick PZT films with high d₃₁ piezoelectric coefficient are necessary for the deformable mirrors to obtain both high stiffness and large stroke at low voltage for applications in astronomical observation and retina imaging. The fabrication techniques for bulk PZT actuators for MEMS deformable mirrors are investigated, incorporating the bonding of bulk PZT ceramics to Si single crystals with epoxy resin, the thinning and patterning of bulk PZT ceramics using wet-etching method. 1BHF:2HCl:4NH₄Cl:4H₂O solution was used as the etchant. Using the fabrication techniques, we have successfully demonstrated a 4×4 prototype array of 2.5mm-diameter bulk PZT actuators for MEMS deformable mirrors. The bulk PZT actuators show a stroke of 3 μm at ±25V and displacement hysteresis of 15%. The displacement hysteresis was largely eliminated by using the method of staying on the same segment.

The GRIN lens is widely used in optical communication and imaging systems. Its array can be used to design integrated optic imaging system, especially for hexagonal GRIN. In this paper, the analytic solution of refractive-index distribution of regularly hexagonal GRIN was obtained by separating variables and transforming coordinate. Having been simulated and compared, the correctness of this analytic solution was proved qualitatively and quantitatively. It has great benefit for further research of regular hexagonal GRIN lens and compound eye imaging system. Furthermore, a universal solution of the refractive-index distribution of a regular N-gon (N is even) lens was obtained by this method.

Calibration of optical axis is an essential process to ensure the quality of optical systems. Only when the light path center, CCD (Charge Coupled Device) center and rotary center of motor fit each other well, can the system run properly to fulfill the proposed function. However, in most cases, the process is conducted by experienced workers and it is hard to precisely evaluate the coherence of optical axis. So the development of an optical calibrator that can detect the optical axis and calibrate the center automatically is of high priority for precise optical instruments. In this research project, we aim to develop a novel system for optical axis online calibration. The system is based on photoelectric encoder for rotary signal sampling of motor. MCU (Micro Controlling Unit) is used as the main control module instead of PC to miniaturize and simplify the system. CPLD (Complex Programmable Logic Device) is employed to realize high speed data storage and processing. A motor driving circuit and a voltage interval location method are designed to control the motor to rotate precisely. The novel optical calibrator has already been taken into practical application in factories, and proved to be of high stability and resolution.

All-polymer capacitors are fabricated using the laser direct pattering combined with a novel lifting procedure. This parallel plate capacitor is achieved by using a highly doped silicon wafer and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) as the electrodes and Norland Optical Adhesive 61 as the dielectric material. The resulting polymeric capacitor is characterized and analyzed for suitability in electronic circuits. The method offers an attractive processing technique as it does not require high temperatures, the need of a vacuum environment, or masks, providing a low cost prototyping with quick turn around time in the design and realization of capacitors that have applications in all polymer IC technology.

A reflecting optical-fiber gas sensor head structure without gas chamber by PBF was reported. It could be used in real-time detection of gas concentration in micro-machinery. For this sensor head, a PBF fiber was used for both transmitting and sensing, a micro-concave mirror and a gas filter were fixed to the one end of the PBF, and the other end of the PBF was connected to a special open coupler in a vacuum box. Gas could transmit and fill the full hollow core area of the PBF by means of negative pressure. The characteristic of gas transmitting in the PBF was simulated with a simplified model by choosing appropriate type and parameters of the PBF. The mass flow rate, the average period of transmission and the relation between the length of PBF and the average period of transmission in different negative pressure were worked out. The result shows that the average period of transmission was proportional to the square of the length of PBF. This PBF gas sensor has its own superiority: (1)Gas transmitting is driven by negative pressure of vacuum pump in the hollow core of the PBF, then the sensor's response time can be improved to less than 10 seconds. (2)With smaller size of sensor head, the interference of the sensor's entrance can be reduced. (3)Without gas chamber, the sensor like a probe, so it can be used in more areas, especially for MEMS system.

An experimental EUVL system has been developed to investigate EUV imaging system design, component fabrication, assembly technique and experimental process. The system includes a laser produced plasma (LPP) source, an ellipsoidal condenser, a transmission mask, a reduced projection optics, and vacuum system. We designed a 10:1 reduction projection optics using Schwarzschild system with spherical mirrors to achieve 0.1μm resolution. The Schwarzschild optics coated with Mo/Si multilayers was assembled with wavefront error (WFE) of 0.014 waves RMS at 632.8nm wavelength under computer-aided alignment method. Using this system a fine pattern of less than 0.25μm covering a 0.1mm diameter image field of view was clearly replicated on resist-coated wafer.

The most important technology of IIOG is to fabricate low loss waveguide reciprocal structure. This is studied in my article by analyzing the theory and experimental results in practice, introducing an offset at the junction of two waveguides, etching groove at the outer edge of bend waveguide and using waveguide lens effect to decrease bend loss. In experiment the photolithography of thick photoresist and reaction ion etching (RIE) process are studied for waveguide grooves with aspect ratio 1:1. The relevant process of figure's wideninging is discussed in theory and experiment, including mask, photoresist, exposure, development, temperature effect and quadratic effect. The effective minishing techniques are put forward such as spinning coat more times, minishing buds, baking and etching at low temperature and optical stabilization. The RIE process is studied for waveguide grooves too. Grassy prominence, the key reason for bad figure's roughness, is particularly discussed. The effective removaling techniques are also performed in practice, such as photoresist optical stabilization, incidence angle's adjustment and etching gas pressure alternation. It's beneficial to etching low loss waveguide.

As a chemically amplified resist, UVN30 has been evaluated for mask use in high density pattern rapid fabrication by electron beam lithography. This resist displays excellent sensitivity and reasonable resolution for dense features. At optimum conditions proximity effect is eliminated and 75 nm and 150 nm dense lines resolved in a 300 nm thick film with writing field of 1mm². With UVN30 mask, Si nanostructures are etched by non-switch DRIE etch chemistry developed in this work, which achieves high etch rate and smooth sidewall. This method is a promising technique for fast speed fabrication of nanophotonics, nanochannels and Si master stamps for nanoimprint.

Comparing with the writing method of plane pattern, spherical pattern' has some remarkable different on several points. Firstly, it is difficult to spin-coated a uniform photoresist film on a spherical substrate, especially the ratio of spherical radius to caliber is smaller, and the spin-coated way must match the ratio of spherical radius to caliber. Secondly, if the sphere couldn't be regarded as a plane, a so-called concentric optical scan movement way must be applied for the generation of spherical pattern, because the reflex of substrate will affect the quantity of illumination. Commonly, an alignment technique is indispensable with pattern generation of spherical surface by the concentric optical scan in order to ensure the orthogonal intersection of focusing laser beam and writing surface. Thirdly, a uniform velocity control must be considered for the laser direct writing method on a spherical substrate. Otherwise, the exposure time of photoresist will be different, and the line widths of pattern will be also different at different areas. Fourthly, commonly, because the errors of concentric machine and substrate surface shape are bigger, so focusing servo-control technique is also needful for writing a pattern on a spherical substrate. Focusing servo-control may keep the focal spot on the spherical surface by a focus detection and control system in the course of writing pattern. Using these techniques, we fabricated a line width of 7μm and a period of 600μm isometric mesh on the concave of a spherical substrate.

GMLM (Grating Movable Light Modulator)is a novel light modulator based on MOEMS technology which can be used in fields of display and print. But present design has only 30% effective diffraction area, which can deeply influence the key parameters such as pixel-filling-ratio and contrast. An electromechanical model of the device was established, and the effective spring constant of GMLM was deduced by energy method. According to that the relation between structure parameters and effective diffraction area was analyzed theoretically. Then optimized structures were simulated and validated by FEM software Coveter Ware. Simulation data shows that the optimization device model can enhance the effective diffraction area to about 90% from less than 30% before optimization.

Photon sieve is a kind of diffractive optical element modulating either amplitude or phase and thus suffers from chromatic aberration or low diffraction efficiency. The narrowband imaging properties of photon sieve are illustrated with point spread function test and resolution target test. Hybrid lens consisting of both refractive optical surfaces and photon sieve are suggested to correct the chromatic aberration. Phase-photon sieve technology and surface plasmon polaritons technology may be promising approaches to improve the diffraction efficiency.

The applications of focused ion beam (FIB) technology in micromachining has advantages over other micromachining technologies, such as high feature resolution, capable markless process, rapid prototyping and adaptive for various materials and geometries. FIB direct-writing techniques are explored for their excellent abilities in micromachining. In addition to FIB technology and its principles for imaging, milling and deposition, a typical FIB system is presented. The key to FIB direct-writing technology is to operate a FIB with a proper beam size, shape, current and energy to remove or add a required amount of material from a pre-defined location in a controlled manner. In this way, high-precision and complicated three-dimensional structures with controlled profiles can be fabricated. Several examples of using milling technique for making high-quality microdevices or high-precision microcomponents for optical and other applications are given. The demonstration of milling a narrow readout gap at an oblique angle on a microaccelerometer shows a FIB's application on a small but accurate post-processing step on a micromechanical device. The diffractive optical element (DOE) with continuous relief and submicron feature size fabricated by FIB milling is also presented to prove high resolution and accurate relief control. Furthermore, FIB milling is used to shape a variety of cutting tools with extremely precise dimensions and complex tool face shapes.

Molecular dynamics (MD) analysis has been found to be a powerful tool for understanding the deformation mechanisms of materials at nanometre scales. The basic principles of MD and potential functions used in nanomachining are reviewed in this paper. The cutting mechanism of brittle materials and ductile materials, tool geometry, tool wear and the relation of macro-cutting mechanism and micro-cutting in the field of nanomachining by molecular dynamics simulation are summarized.

Hyper-numerical aperture ArF scanner has being designed to meet the needs of 45nm node. Resolution enhancement technology, such as phase shift mask, off-axis illumination, and innovation processing technology must be employed in hyper-numerical aperture ArF lithography. However the cross talk of phase shift mask, off axis illumination, polarization effect, and resist stack impacts lithography performance significantly. Option of resolution enhancement technology is presented in conjunction with optimal dual-layers bottom anti-refactive coating and polarized illumination by our program and Prolith 9.0. Multi options of resolution enhancement technology are obtained to maintain a small CD, good CD uniformity (CDU), reasonable process window (PW) and fidelity of resist profile.

This paper presents an on-line inspection instrument of surface quality for medical film. Using LED light to illumine moving medical film from one side, in the other side LED transmitted light is focused on linear CCD of 2048 pixels. With CCD, optical information is converted into electrical information which is fast processed by a hybrid circuit to get the size and position of the tiny smudge. An adaptive threshold method is invented in the circuit to extract exactly the information of different kinds of tiny smudges. This instrument has already been proved to be of high stability with better spatial resolution than 1mmx1mm in the condition of an inspection range of 1.4m and a film moving speed of 2m/s. Besides, a further all-digital processing method for increasing inspection resolution and distinguishing tiny smudges and normal crystals on e medical film is also put forward.

In recent years, AlGaN semiconductor alloys, with a direct bandgap tunable between 3.4eV and 6.2eV, become the most suitable material for fabricating UV detectors. In this paper, a backside-illuminated visible-blind UV detector based on a GaN/AlGaN p-i-n heterostructure has been successfully fabricated and tested. The p-i-n photodiode structure consists of a 0.7um n-type Al_0.33Ga_0.67N:Si layer grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) onto a low temperature AlN buffer layer on a polished sapphire substrate. On the top of this layer there is a 0.18um undoped GaN active layer and a 0.15um p-type GaN:Mg top layer. Square mesas of area A=1.70×10^-3cm² were obtained by inductively coupled plasma etching using BCl₃, Ar and Cl₂. Standard photolithographic and metallization procedures were also employed to fabricate the devices. The visible blind photodiode exhibits a narrow UV spectral responsibility band peaked at 360nm, with maximum responsibility R=0.21A/W, corresponding to an internal quantum efficiency of 82%. R₀A values up to 2.64×10⁸Ω•cm² were obtained, corresponding to D*=2.65×10¹³ cmHz^1/2W^-1 at 360nm. The leakage current at zero bias is 5.20×10^-13A. We also examined GaN/AlGaN epitaxial layers by high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The rocking curve indicates the multiple layers including p-type layer are in good state, which indicates that the crystalline quality of films is the key of device performances.

We present new progress of the diffraction grating interferometer being pre-aligned used a double frequency grating. To measure the parallelism of the double frequency grating to a nicety before being built in the interferometer, a device based on Diffraction Technique for measuring the parallelism of the double frequency grating is designed. It is built of a semiconductor laser, a collimator, gratings, a precision turnplate, a beeline workbench, a redressal shelves, a ccd detector. The system error of the device is analyzed in this paper, and the parallelism of the double frequency grating is measured by this device. The results demonstrate that the diffraction measuring device suits the parallelism measured the diffracting grating interferometer based on the double frequency grating of that parallelism can attain a high pre-aligning precision.

The major etching processes of a large-aperture multilayer diffraction grating, including the uniformity of the ion beam current along the major axis and the on-line measurement of the diffraction intensity distribution are described. A large-aperture ion beam etcher with radio frequency linear source has been developed to fabricate large-aperture diffractive optical elements. The length with ±5.1% uniformity of the ion beam current distribution along the major axis is 30 cm. A series of multilayer diffraction gratings were etched successfully by using this etcher with CHF₃ chemistry. Multilayer diffraction gratings on a 80 mm×150 mm BK7 substrate etched for laser systems are shown. The grating exhibits an averaged diffraction efficiency about 96% at TE polarization of 1 064 nm light viewed at Littrow angle.

A novel approach of optically exciting and detecting the vibration of a microresonator by a sinusoidally driven semiconductor laser subject to optical feedback is proposed. A theoretical model for the approach is established, and the working parameters are optimized. In our experiments, an Al-coated microcantilever is designed with optimized working parameters, and the microcantilever is optically excited by a sinusoidally driven semiconductor laser. We have demonstrated that there exist periodic dips of the optical power of semiconductor laser, which is caused by the resonant vibration of microcantilever. The optical power of semiconductor laser is also analyzed theoretically by using L-K equations. The experimental result is consistent with the result of theoretical analysis.

A solution to the improvement of certain kinds of FLMS (Focusing and Leveling Measurement System) is presented in this article. This solution can make FLMS, especially the FLMS which bases on detecting light energy barycenter or peak of probing spots (DLEBP-FLMS), only sensitive to the movement and topology of the object to be measured and immune to those optical characteristics of the measured object and FLMS itself (OCMOFI) which will introduce errors into FLMS measurement. Also this solution can balance all the energy distribution deviations introduced by FLMS itself, which are due to optical noncentrosymmetrical aberrations of its optics subsystem, to enhance the DLEBP-FLMS linearity and repeatability consequently. Therefore, measurement accuracy, reproducibility, adaptability to measured object, linearity and repeatability of certain kinds of FLMS can be improved by this solution.

As the critical dimension shrinks, degradation of lithographic quality because of axial aberrations in the projection optics has become more obvious. To minimize the adverse effect of axial aberrations on imaging, accurate in-situ measurement of axial aberrations is necessary. In this paper, a novel in-situ method to measure axial aberrations is proposed. In this novel method, a new type of measurement mark for measuring the axial aberrations is designed. By using new marks, the axial aberrations can be obtained by the linewidth variation of two bars in the marks. The linewidth variation is proportional to the focus shift in which the measurement mark is exposed. The proportional factor can be obtained by the simulation software Prolith. From the linewidth variation and proportional factor, the focus shift of the measurement mark in different positions can be calculated. The axial aberrations can be obtained by the calculated focus shift. In this novel measurement method, both the measurement procedure and data-processing are simple. As the measurement accuracy of the focus shift in z direction is increased, the measurement accuracy of axial image quality increases by more than 25%.

As critical dimension shrinks, overlay error induced by wavefront aberration of projection lens in lithographic tools has become a serious problem. In the present paper, we introduce a novel algorithm for modeling aberration-induced overlay in the lithographic process. The calculation results of the algorithm show good correlation with that of PROLITH, the widely used simulation program employing the vector model. And the calculating time is reduced to less than 10% with the algorithm.

Based on electro-magneto-rheological (EMR) effect, this paper presents a novel micro machining method to form an instantaneous tiny-grinding wheel to polish the surface of optical glass, ceramic and other rigid-fragile materials under both electric and magnetic field. Experiments were conducted to reveal the synergistic effect of electrorheological and magnethorheological effect, and the effects of process parameters, such as intensity of electric field, intensity of magnetic field, working time, machining gap between the workpiece and the needle-like tool, on material removal rate of glass surface. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the micro machining technique with EMR effect-based tiny-grinding wheel and the machining efficiency under the combination of electric and magnetic field is much greater than the one under applied external electric or magnetic field. The material removal rate of workpiece is directly proportional to the intensity of external electric field and will maintain stable when the voltage of external electric field reaches 2000v, while the material removal rate is directly proportional to the intensity of external magnetic field. The material removal rate markedly descends with the increase of the machining gap. In addition, the working time is directly proportional to the amount of material removal of workpiece, but inversely proportional to material removal rate.

This paper presents a new comb-drive actuator arrangement that has a large displacement with low driving voltage and relatively small footprint. The new arrangements in the comb drivers can provide both pulling forces and pushing forces as compared to conventional drivers that only provide pulling forces, therefore additional displacements are achieved without increasing the driving voltage. This arrangement is verified numerically using FEM and the simulation results are consistent with the values derived from the mathematical model. The results show an obviously enhanced displacement and a compact layout.

In order to get the edge message of a target, a laser scanning system was established. The laser scanning system steers a beam of laser energy which is dithered in two directions to scan the surface of the object. A laser energy detector detects laser energy reflected from the target. The reflected information is filtered to distinguish dither frequencies for signal in both directions. The signals are independently analyzed to determine the edge of the target by detecting the change of reflected laser energy. In order to get the fantastic point of echo signal, wavelet transform is used. Based on invariability of the quality factor of wavelet transform, combined with proper wavelet group, this paper discusses the application of wavelet transform for the detection of echo signal. On the basis of algorithm analysis, from aspects of detecting principle, detecting steps and computer emulation, the authors expatiate how to use wavelet transform to find the fantastic point of echo signal, finally to find the edge of the target being detected. Wavelet transform has the ability of denoting local signal characteristics, so it is fit to analyzing instantaneous and fantastic phenomena and can lay out signal components. The method in this paper will supply an algorithm gist and a reference for signal processing for the detection of edge message of target. The results are demonstrated by using Matlab programme. By the measure, the noise can be eliminated, and effective signals can be picked up. When applying the wavelet transform to experimentation, a satisfactory result was obtained. When using this method, the ability of edge detection can be greatly improved.

Microscopic interferometry for dimensional characterization and device inspection is described in this paper. This method is characteristic of fast speed, non-destructive, non-contact, and easy to be carried out at wafer scale with submicrometer lateral resolution and nanoscale vertical resolution. The measurement system is based on a Mirau microscopic interferometric objective with a piezo objective nano-positioner to realize accurate phase shifting and scanning in vertical direction in the range of one hundred micrometers. The method consists of phase shifting interferometry (PSI) and vertical scanning interferometry (VSI), the former can measure smooth surface with high accuracy and the latter can measure samples with large step variations. The measurement accuracy of the system is calibrated by a step height standard certificated by NIST. Two MEMS devices are employed to illustrate the capability of the system which is regarded as as a measurement and process characterization tool.

The microstructure with high fidelity is very important while being used as micro-optical component, because the performance tightly depends on the profile quality of microstructure. Optical lithography method based on thick film resist plays an increasing important role in fabrication for microstructure. However, the profile quality of the microstructure is greatly affected by process parameters adopted in the experiment. In this paper, the effect of illumination wavelength, gap distance and absorption coefficient on the profile quality after development has been simulated, analyzed and discussed in detail, by using the model for thick film lithography. The simulated results show that these process parameters have a great impact on the profile quality of microstructures, which it is helpful for process optimization and profile control of thick film photolithography.

Coating photoresist film with uniform thickness on concave spherical substrate (CSS) is very important for microfabrication of concave spherical optical elements by lithography technique via a laser direct writer, for the uneven photoresist film will result in ununiformity of line width so as to influence the characters of optical elements. For improving the uniformity of photoresist film coating on CSS, an automatic spin coater was designed. The process and the mathematical model of spin coating for CSS were analyzed. Difficulties for realizing the spin coater consist of the control of multi-axis motion precisely and collaboratively, valves on/ff properly and real-timely. A flexible and wellbehaved spinning motion system was achieved by tmeans of principal and subordinate CPUs control. The motion program for spin coating could be created and implemented automatically while the pressure and the valves were was watched and controlled in real time. Film coating and laser direct writing experiments on a CSS with aperture equals to 100 mm and radius equals to 370 mm were performed. Photoresist film with uniform thickness on CSS was obtained by selecting proper spin coating parameters such as rotational speed, acceleration and viscosity of the photoresist. After development, the section analysis by the atomic force microscope showed that photoresist film thickness was about 517 nm in the center and about 520 nm in the edge of substrate, the film thickness error was within 1%, and the line width was about 6.0 μm with steep sides parallel each other. Experimental results indicate that uniform thickness of thin photoresist film has been coated on CSS by the spin coater, which contributes to quality improvement of laser direct writing lines on CSS.

With the development of semiconductor laser technology, laser proximity fuzes have been widely used in various kinds of guided missiles and conventional ammunitions. Conventional laser proximity fuzes consisting of separated components, have the disadvantages such as large volumes and poor anti-jamming abilities, so are not satisfied with the modern warfare circumstances. Combined with the separated components, the system has been divided into transmitting module, receiving module and information processing module, the different modules have been analyzed in detail,. Meanwhile, the transmitting driven circuit has been developed and laser pulse with 20ns narrow width was obtained. In order to meet the multifunction and miniaturization, laser fuzes based on MEMS/MOEMS have been introduced in this paper. Technologies include vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, integrated resonant-cavity photodetector and refractive micro-optics. The entire structure was roughly 1~2mm thick and 1mm on a side.

Binary optical lens is featured not only smaller physical volume, lighter weight and e easy replication on application, but also high diffractive efficiency, special chromatic dispersion function, more design freedom and more material. Thus in this paper, the authors mainly analysis and calculate the properties of monochrome elementary aberration, and improve the optical design of telescope system by using refractive-diffractive lens. This result showed that this new approach could be performed.

In this paper, the topographies of various micro-mirror surfaces are measured by Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) based on NiCrAu MEMS optical switch unit which is desined and fabricated by the authors. Fractal theory and Weierstrass-Mandelbrot function is applied to analyze and simulate the topography of different surfaces. The result shows that the surface of MEMS micromirror which is fabricated by metal sputter has low anisotropism and the W-M function is very efficient in creating models and is very useful for analyzing the topography of MEMS surface.

Hyper-numerical aperture (NA) immersion lithography has created new challenges for ArF bottom antireflective coating (BARC). The reflectivity control over a wider range of incident angles of the incoming imaging rays is most important in order to reduce stand wave effect and get a good profile of lithography pattern. The conventional single-layer BARC structure will be not suitable for Hyper-NA immersion lithography. The dual BARC structures will possibly be used in hyper-NA ArF lithography at 45-nm node. The optimization of dual-BARC parameters will depend on the angle of incidence and the polarization of the light in the BARC. Here we discuss the influence of polarization on optimization of dual BARC structure through simulations. A computational code is developed that performs optimizations of dual- BARC parameters for both TE and TM polarized light. In the code, the reflectivity vs. angle plot is integrated, and over a given range of BARC optical constants, the best BARC parameters, which are relative to the minimum value of the reflectivity-angle integral (RAI), are obtained. Using the optimized BARC parameters, we calculate the maximum reflectance in the corresponding region of incident angle of NA being 1.0, 1.2 to 1.4. It is found that the maximum reflectance tends to increase if the NA increases. Comparison of the results for the TE and TM polarized light shows that the reflectance of the former tends to be significantly larger than that of the latter, especially for hyper-NA lithography. It means that it is more difficult to control substrate reflectivity for TE polarized light than for TM polarized light.

The performance of ArF dry lithography at 65 nm node was studied together with RET. Commercial software Prolith 9.0 and in-house-software MicroCruiser 5.0 were used for simulation and mass data process. The combination of different phase shift mask (PSM), off axis illumination and patterns were chosen for this research. The image contrast, nominal image log-slope (NILS), depth of focus (DOF) and resist profile were considered to judge the lithography performance. The results show that the combination of small sigma conventional illumination and alternating phase shift mask (alt- PSM) is the best choice for Line/Space (L/S) patterns of different pitches. The isolate L/S pattern can be imaged with a large image contrast and DOF if alt-PSM and several kinds of illumination (such as small sigma, annular, and quasar illumination) are joined together. For semi-dense and dense L/S pattern, good lithography performance can be reached by using only small sigma illumination and alt-PSM. The impact of polarization illumination was also considered. Y-polarization illumination enhances the image contrast, NILS and the DOF for most conditions. The Z-orientation resist image fidelity was studied by optimization of the double bottom anti-reflection coating (DBARC) and resist thickness. This research predicts that 65 nm L/S pattern can be fabricated by current ArF dry lithography system.

The fabrication of PDMS microfluidic chip was reported. The microchip was composed of multimode optical fiber, PDMS cover slab and PDMS base slab. The mould of cover slab was achieved by using twice exposal technology and the microfluidic chip was fabricated with casting PDMS method. The microfluidic channel with a 50μm depth and the fiber channel with a 90μm depth were formed in the PDMS cover slab, and another fiber channel with a 40μm depth were made in the PDMS base slab, so the centers of the microfluidic channel and the fiber could be located in the same plane. Several factors, which affect the characteristic of the chip, were discussed. The experiment was achieved with the fabricated chip to separate Fluorescein Isothiocyanate (FITC) and FITC-labeled amino acid mixture reagent, and the feasibility of the chip was approved.

Electron beam lithography (EBL) will be used to pattern an Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) mask. Both forward scattering electrons and backscattering electrons contribute to the energy deposition in resist, which is directly related to the pattern profile. When the exposure conditions, development conditions and the thickness and material of absorber, buffer, capping, and substrate are determined, the structure of molybdenum/silicon (Mo/Si) multilayer become the exclusive factor to influent the EUV mask fabrication. Several researchers have investigated the influence of the number of repeated Mo/Si layer and their thickness on the backscattering coefficient and the deposited energy in the resist. However the secondary electron generation and tracking is not implemented. Furthermore, the characters of pattern profile were not analyzed. In this paper, EBL module of in house software MicroCruiser, which included the secondary electrons and relativistic correction of high energy electron, was used to study the impact of structure of Mo/Si multilayer on the mask fabrication by EBL. Energy distribution in resist, backscattering coefficient (BSC), and the pattern profile had been investigated. The results show that with the number of Mo/Si repeated layers increases, the BSC decrease and the line edge of pattern profile is much smoother.

The micro power system, which is composed of photovoltaic solar cell, heat conductor, thermoelectric generator (TEG) module and fin heat sink has been developed in our laboratory. A photovoltaic silicon solar cell of the P-N junction type is sensitive to radiant energy of wavelength from 5,000 Å to 12,000 Å. Radiation under and within this range is converted not only into electric energy but also into heat energy. The wavelength longer than this range is also converted into heat energy, which degrades the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. TEG produces electrical power from temperature difference via Seebeck effect that can be put under the solar cell to absorb the heat. The heat energy can be converted into electrical power. It was found that when TEG surface area was 150mm×60mm, it could generate 0.24V output voltage and 4.18mA short circuit at ambient temperature varying between 5-10°C at winter. It also could generate 1.3V output voltage and 16mA short circuit at ambient temperature varying between 30-36°C at summer. In fact we can use a dc-dc boost up converter to enlarge the output voltage to meet the requirements of wireless sensor network nodes or its recharging battery. It will be an alternative power source for many portable electronic types of equipment.

This paper (672413) was removed from the SPIE Digital Library on 13 April 2010 to discovery of plagiarism. As stated in the SPIE Guidelines for Professional Conduct and Publishing Ethics, SPIE defines plagiarism as the reuse of someone else's prior ideas, processes, results, or words without explicit attribution of the original author and source, or falsely representing someone else's work as one's own. SPIE considers plagiarism in any form, at any level, to be unacceptable and a serious breach of professional conduct. It is SPIE policy to remove such papers and to take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the offending author(s).

This paper (672414) was removed from the SPIE Digital Library on 13 April 2010 to discovery of plagiarism. As stated in the SPIE Guidelines for Professional Conduct and Publishing Ethics, SPIE defines plagiarism as the reuse of someone else's prior ideas, processes, results, or words without explicit attribution of the original author and source, or falsely representing someone else's work as one's own. SPIE considers plagiarism in any form, at any level, to be unacceptable and a serious breach of professional conduct. It is SPIE policy to remove such papers and to take appropriate corrective or disciplinary action against the offending author(s).

In this paper, we concerns on the location of the micro manipulator in a micro manipulating system based on SLM and two CCDs. After getting the depth image of an object and its background by SLM, we stress the importance on how to separate them and then obtain the position information of the object. Firstly, we obtain HSI model of the micro-vision image according to the transform function from RGB to HSI. Then, we draw the curve of H component of the image. According to this image, we separate the object from the background successfully. After that, applying moment method, we calculate mass centric coordinate of the object. Finally, applying the projective geometry in the stereo vision, we get centric coordinate of the object combined with the coordinate system of the CCD. Therefore, we realize the location of the micro object. This method is applied in practical micro-manipulating and fast and high-accurate location of object is obtained with a locating accuracy less than 1%.

The time-resolved photoelectron spectra of spectrally sensitized cubic AgCl emulsion are detected with microwave absorption and dielectric spectrum detection technique. The decay process of photoelectron is accelerated and becomes faster than that of the unsensitized sample since the concentration of interstitial Agi + ions is increased when the dye molecules are adsorbed onto the surface of crystal. The influence of temperature condition on the photoelectron decay process is obtained. Results show that the dye adsorption degree is varied when the sensitizing temperature differs, then the decay dynamic changes. The optimal temperature condition is in 450C in which the adsorption of dye has a larger influence on crystal property and the photoelectron decay is fastest. When lower or higher than this condition, the adsorption degree is poor or the dye molecules have a tendency to form bigger dye-aggregates, then the variance of interstitial Ag_i ⁺ ions is less than that in 450°C and causes a slower photoelectron decay process.

As an excellent micromachining method, femtosecond laser ablation is more and more frequently used in micromachining. Femtosecond laser ablation can take residual stresses beside the machining area, which may affect the performance of micro devices. In this paper, grooves were ablated by femtosecond laser and nanoindentation experiments were exploited to uncover residual stresses in the area beside the grooves. The reduced modulus and hardness in different areas around the groove were measured through nanoindention and position dependent regular changes in reduced modulus were found. Such changes contained the information of residual stresses in such area. A formula correlating residual stresses with the reduced modulus was set up.

A novel optical acceleration sensor based on optical fiber and MEMS technology is presented in this paper. It can effectively solve the problem of low immunity of inertial sensors and can be used in navigation system towards the Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) and Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP). A Fresnel diffractive micro lens is fabricated with a glass substrate. A reflecting membrane is placed behind the diffractive micro lens in parallel and its displacement is determined by acceleration. The sensing principle of the sensor is to calculate acceleration by measuring variousl light intensity at the frontal focal point of the diffractive micro lens. Moreover, the performance of sensor was analyzed. The results of analysis and computer simulation indicated that the design is logical and feasible. The results of proof-of-principle experiments indicate that the principle of this novel sensor is true and it has merits of simple structure and high sensitivity.

Femtosecond laser micromachining of solid materials such as Si, GaAs, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and Fused Silica has been performed in air. Femtosecond (fs) laser pulses with pulse duration of 180 fs and output wavelength of 800 nm is applied for a light source. The relationship between pulse energy and sub-micron scale crater on the surface of Si, GaAs, PMMA and Fused Silica induced by fs laser pulses has been figured out. The sub-micron void can be produced in the focal point of fs laser beam. Two kinds of gratings have been fabricated on the surface of Fused Silica by femtosecond laser machining (FLM). The parameters of one grating such as the length of 20 mm, the width of 1.5 mm and the period of 2 μm have been obtained. A 20-mm-long and 0.45-mm-wide grating with period of 11 μm has been also fabricated. The diffraction efficiency of each order has been measured. An elliptical cross section waveguide has been obtained inside the bulk of Fused Silica. The distance beneath the surface was measured to be 2 mm. The diffraction rings can be observed in the far field image of the light output from the waveguide.

Nanolithography has been investigated by using optical proximity exposure in the evanescent near field in nano-filmed noble metals. Sub-diffraction-limited feature size can be resolved by using i-line illumination exposure. Compared with the model of original superlens, we separated the superlens 100nm away from the mask, under the illumination of i-line light, the initial simulation shows that the sub-diffraction-limited feature as small as 60nm linewidth with 120nm pitch can be clearly resolved without hard contact between mask and nano-filmed noble metal. By proper design of the materials and the parameters of nano-filmed layers, better resolution can be realized.

Silica is a good material of MOEMS, however, it is difficult to be micro-processed to form a complicated appearance. Introduced in this paper is process analysis of fluorine (F₂) 157-nm laser micro-ablating silica. The interaction and mechanism of ablative photo decomposition between the photons of 157-nm laser and silica are discussed in detail. To test 157-nm silica ablating effect, the profile of micro holes on the end cross section of silica photonic crystal fiber (PCF) was employed under the exposure of 157-nm beam, to quantitatively analyze the ablating depth and degree. The results show that under 7.9eV photon energy of 157-nm laser, the defect formations in silica are accumulated to produce a large quantity of free electrons. Meanwhile, the dopants in silica fiber or glass considerably reduce the breakdown threshold. Because the rate of single-photon absorption outclasses the rate of multi-photon absorption, it can be inferred that the mechanism of interactions between 157-nm laser and silica is a process of single-photon absorption of electron-avalanche. The actual ablating velocity 210nm/pulse showed that the 157-nm laser could be absorbed strongly by silica material. It also illustrated that there did be thermal process during the ablation, however, because the velocity of damage caused by ablating was very fast, the heat was therefore limited. A good quality of ablating result could be ensured.

Active (or tunable) waveguide devices are essential elements to control light for information processing (e.g., coding-decoding, routing, multiplexing, timing, logic operations, etc.) in high-density integrated-optic circuits. In these devices, the complex effective refractive index of the structure is varied in order to produce a phase or intensity modulation. In this paper we study a micron-size metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS)-based high index-contrast SOI waveguide for highspeed electro-optic modulation on strong light confinement. The light confinement enhances the effect of small index changes on the transmission of the device, enabling an ultracompact structure with high modulation depth. We study the electrical and optical characteristics of this type of silicon electro-optic waveguide modulator using a MOS configuration, and calculate the device's performance for electro-optic modulation with high frequency under different modes of operation of the MOS diode and gate oxide thickness. The studied core Si electro-optic modulation device with high frequency will bring big improvement in the field of optic communication and optic calculation.

Quantum wire is one of the central subjects of nano-electronics. Quantum wire shows unusual electronic and optical properties attributed to the following effects: quantum confinement effect, surface effects, and quantum tunneling effect. Many different kinds of techniques have been developed for researchers to produce quantum wires, such as laser ablation technique, electrochemical processing, chemical vapor deposition technique, etc. However, controlling the sample size and orientation distribution is a big challenge in these fabrication methods. One promising technique to prepare monosized well-aligned quantum wires is using template technique, i.e., deposition of guests into porous matrices. In this paper, several template synthesis processes for preparations of carbon nanotubes were investigated. The carbon nanotubes produced by template technique have narrow size distributions and involve fragments of highly ordered shapes which are due to the limitation of matrix size and channel direction. Because of the restricted dimension of the matrix, the system shows peculiar properties such as polarization in spectra, strong quantum effects, and faster optical response. These may be used in electric transport, optic switches, nonlinear optics and lasers.

The fabrication technology of high resolution substrate pattern for organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs) was discussed in the paper. Surface morphology and crystallization properties of ITO films and the shape of photolithography pattern were investigated. Experimental results show that three factors including deposition pressure, flow ratio of argon to oxygen and annealing temperature greatly influence the conductance of ITO film.. Some attempts about designing photomask were enumerated and the reverse taper angle separator was successfully fabricated with image reversal process.

During Laser Shock Processing when a material is irradiated with short laser pulses (ns) of very high densities (>GW/cm²), a high intensity shock wave is generated. This treatment can reduce the rate of fatigue cracking and stress corrosion cracking in structural metals or alloys needed for aerospace, nuclear power plants, and military applications. Laser shock processing has been shown to be a viable method of strengthen metallic components. When laser pulse width is 20ns, laser energy is 35J, the effect of LSP on alloy surface residual stresses and stress intensity factor were analyzed. And the influence of the surface residual stress on material fatigue life after LSP was discussed from the theory of the fracture mechanics. Transformation on the characters of aerial engine blade by laser shock processing and influence on the fatigue life with these transformations were studied. And the relatively fatigue life experiment of aerial engine blade was done to validate the influence on the fatigue life of aerial engine by laser shock processing. It was found that laser shock processing could bring residual compressive stress and high-density dislocation on the surface of the blade. All these transformation greatly increase the fatigue life of aerial engine blade.

A new MEMS-based tunable grating with programmable grating period, driven by electrostatic comb, was designed. Finite element model was developed and finite element simulation was performed with ANSYS. Modal analysis and static analysis were carried out. To improve the calculation efficiency, electrostatic driving force at each movable comb was directly computed by analytical method instead of time-consuming coupled-field analysis. The results show that this MEMS-based tunable grating functions quite well when a driving voltage is provided. To operate at its working resonating mode much easier, thicker grating structure is needed, revealing the necessity in using the bulk micromachining such as SOI technology to fabricate the grating. Also, larger the length of connecting beam and spring beam, and smaller the width of spring beam, larger the deflection we can get for a specific driving voltage. The designed MEMS-based tunable grating can be applied in many fields.

We propose a auto-collimating Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) for refractive index measurement and optical on/off switch in non-channel photonic crystals (PhCs) by filling the lattice with fluid of different refractive index. The designed MZI, consisting of non-channel waveguides, optical bends and beam splitters for auto-collimated beams, is actively controlled by changing the refractive index of background material in one of its two optical paths. Equi-frequency contour (EFC) analysis and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations are used to quantify the optical properties of auto-collimation based bends, beam splitters and MZI. Simulation results show that the output intensities exhibit sinusoidal curves as a function of refractive index, and the π− phase shift is obtained as the background refractive index changes as small as Δn=0.16. The novel interferometer demonstrates a great potential to act as a sensitive refractive index sensor or as an intensity modulator in optical circuits.

Parameters of two spherical waves are firstly optimized to get the exact groove densities of diffractive gratings. Consequently, the groove density differences between on the plane and on the curved substrates are derived. Therefore, some experimental results are provided to demonstrate the validity of this method above. Meanwhile, the curvatures of the substrates are measured three times by using long trace profiler (LTP), which assures the repeatability of the bending technique for grating substrates. At last, the advantage of this method is exhibited through comparing the errors of grating groove density fabricated by this technique with only two spherical waves.

Magnetic submicron meter structures were fabricated on Co_0.9Fe_0.1 films by laser interference lithography combined with ion beam etching. The vertical standing wave was restrained by using proper exposure dose and appropriate development time. Hysteresis loops of the magnetic film and magnetic patterns were presented by surface magneto-optical Kerr effect. The difference magnetism between magnetic patterns with different critical sizes and the film was discussed.

The development of micro/meso-scale machine tool was motivated by the fabrication of scaled-down workpieces with better quality, higher efficiency and less expense. In contrast with the batch technologies derived from microelectronics, mechanical tool-based process has many virtues such as the ability of creating free-form features, high material removal and less limitation of the working material. With the occurrence of relative novel precision technologies and components, the option of micro/meso-scale machine tools is superior to conventional macro-scale machine tools in machining micro parts and features. In 1990s, the first microlathe and microfactory were developed by MEL in Japan. This research stimulated the further study on micro/meso-scale machine tools over the world. Meanwhile, mechanical tool-based micromachining was also conducted on these test beds demonstrating the feasibility of the concept on micro/meso-scale machine tools. The development of micro/meso-scale machine tools is supported by many technologies in the fields of controls, feedback systems, servo drives, and general machine design and configuration. However, there is still some difficulties in reaching the same machining level of ultra-precision machine tools. These difficulties and corresponding recommendations for future research, such as the configuration and design of micro/mesoscale machine tools, the micromachining mechanism as well as assembly and handling the workpiece etc., are also described.

Wavelength encoding sensors, such as fiber Bragg grating, have the advantage of strong antijamming ability. However, the wavelength encoding signal is usually converted to electric intensity signal by demodulators in most measurements. The intensity signal is easy to be disturbed by environmental factors, so the advantage of wavelength encoding fails due to the instable intensity demodulation. In this paper, a novel wavelength demodulating method is presented. This method demodulates wavelength encoding signal directly by means of counting using a Sagnac interferometer with birefringent fiber without encoding conversion from wavelength to intensity. Through the interferometer, the changed wavelength signal from sensor becomes the kind of output light, the intensity of which is changed with wavelength periodically. The intensity can easy be disturbed, but its period is very stable. In other words, the change of wavelength in one intensity period is stable. With this character, we count the number at the rising edge and falling edge of intensity appear, and then calculate the accurate change of wavelength signal. From experiment, we get 0.067 nm wavelength resolution by use of a Sagnac interferometer with 30 meter birefringent fiber. It is proved that the intensity frequency (the reciprocal of intensity period) changed with wavelength is proportional to the length of birefringent fiber. If the length is fixed, the frequency is determined. For farther increase of wavelength resolution, it is only necessary to increase the length of birefringent fiber. The wavelength demodulator is characteristic of high stability and high precision.

An 850 nm monolithically integrated optical receiver front end has been simulated by ATLAS and developed based on 0.5 μm GaAs PHEMT process, which comprises a metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector and a distributed amplifier.The output eye diagrams for 2.5 Gb/s and 5Gb/s NRZ pseudorandom binary sequence are attained. Compared to the characteristics of actual device, this contribution details a simulation strategy for accurate prediction of the unilluminated performances of the devices.

Single-point diamond turning techniques have been widely used in manufacturing diffractive surfaces in both infrared and visible wave band. There are two important factors in the manufacturing process for obtaining diffractive surface relief profile with high quality, one is diamond turning tool tips resulting in diffractive micro structure blockage and surface finish, and the other is turning feed affecting surface finish. Both of them contribute to total integrated scatter (TIS) and add to veiling glare. The effect of diamond tool tips and turning feed in the manufacturing process on TIS was discussed and analyzed numerically in this paper, and the result was presented.

A novel diffractive optical element (DOE), quantu-dot-array diffraction grating(QDADG), used in soft X-ray spectroscopy has been fabricated for the first time. The QDADG, which consists of a large number of quantum dots distributed on a substrate as sinusoidal function, has many advantages in theory over conventional transmission grating (TG) in soft X-ray spectroscopy, such as doubtless diffraction efficiency, no higher-order diffraction and no subordination diffraction maximum, and so on. So, it can be predicted theoretically to improve the precision and Signal Noise Ratio of soft X-ray spectroscopy in laser plasma diagnosis. But, there are many difficulties in the fabrication of soft X-ray spectroscopy QDADG because of its much small dimension and complex pattern. In this paper, a combined lithography was proposed to fabricate QDADG including electron beam lithograph (EBL) and proximity X-ray lithograph(XRL). The diffraction property of QDADG has also been proved to be consistent with theoretical prediction from test experiment. In the process of fabrication, because of the thin film substrate of soft X-ray QDADG, the backscattering of incidence electrons can be effectively restrained in the electron beam lithograph, which can cause much higher resolution. Without proximity effect correction, QDADG with 250nm minimal unit has been successfully fabricated. In order to further increase the spectroscopy resolution and dispersion power of QDADG, it is necessary to carry out proximity effect correction in electron beam lithograph.

Numerical calculation is used to investigate influencing factors on the surface displacement of a bimorph deformable mirror. It's shown that the value of response function is direct proportional to the loading voltage, inverse proportional to the square of the thickness of PZT layer, and increased about 1.4 times when the area of the electrode doubles. Besides, the displacement is closely related to the distance of the control layer from median plane. As a conclusion, the farther electrode contributes the larger deformation. Furthermore, we have discussed the problem of singular solutions at inner and outer boundary.

Image quality is the most important performance of optical lithography tool and it is influenced by many factors. Temperature stability of projection lens is one of the main factors. It is difficult to control temperature stability of the projection lens because of its features of big inertia, multi-time-delay and multi-perturbation. Temperature control unit (TCU), which is used to control the projection lens temperature, is required to operate far away from projection lens, otherwise it will increase COO of lithography tool and its vibration will affect the performance of projection lens. So a remote temperature control method is proposed. A two-input and two-output intelligent algorithm is presented to improve convergent rate and steady-state accuracy of the temperature control system for projection lens. Control process is divided into five phases according to the ideal dynamic response curve. A nonlinear PI algorithm is recommended to precisely adjust temperature and an intelligent decision decides the switch of five multi-phases. The experiment results show that ±0.006°C temperature stability can be realized and the algorithm has advantage of quick convergent rate, strong robustness and self-adaptability. This algorithm has been used in optical lithography tool with 100nm CD and has achieved good temperature stability.

The position and tilt between the image plane of projection lens and wafer surface must be accurately measured and corrected as much as possible. Defocus always occurs when the imaging plane does not consist with the best focus plane. And it reduces the clarity of optical image. It has been reported that proper focusing is a critical factor in the lithography. An automatic focusing and leveling measurement system (FLMS) presented in the reference and widely used in high resolution lithography has been studied. We reveal a detailed principle of the signal processing of the FLMS and evaluate its performance by simulation. The simulation results show that measurement accuracy of the FLMS can be less than 10nm. And this FLMS meets the requirement of high resolution photolithography.

With decreasing CD in semiconductor industry, the ability to detect smaller resist particles on wafers after photolithography process becomes increasingly important for the advanced photolithography processes. It is important to be able to detect the resist defect for the advanced photolithography processes. To be able to measure the resist, defect after development process can give the indication and the early warning of the photoresist defect on the wafer. The diazoquinone/novolak resist particles were collected after the development of several lots of wafers, while the wafer critical dimension is 2μm. The particle size and its distribution after development process were obtained. The resist particles were negatively stained before TEM. The TEM figures and the measurement data of the resist particle diameters were reported. The size measurement data of TEM figures of diazoquinone/novolak resist particles after photolithography development process was analyzed. The particle size mainly has dual separate distribution peaks: >85% of particles have the diameters distributed around ~23 nm and 15% of bigger particles around 220 nm. Because of the unique role of DNQ, which is both the photo-sensitizer and the development inhibitor before exposure, the correlation of resist particle size with respect to the developer concentration, the size of the radius of gyration, the "photosensitizing center" and the "development center" is speculated. Generally the particle size distribution is mainly correlated to the developer concentration, polymer macromolecular weight and the polymer / PAC ratio.

Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) for the aerial image formation and Critical Modulation Transfer Function (CMTF) from the image formation system are two most important parameters for the photolithography processes. In this paper, we studied CMTF, or to be precise, we studied the contrast γ of the photoresist. γ is essential to the photolithography processes. New method to measure contrast γ is proposed and studied on DNQ/novolac photoresist. We provided the UV-vis absorption spectroscopic figures of the DNQ/novolac photoresist with sequentially increased exposure energy. In the figures the exposure energy from the i-line (365 nm) contact aligner is from 100 mJ/cm² to 220 mJ/cm². Higher amount of exposure dose was also applied to the resist. The UV-vis wavelength range is between 300 to 450 nm and 250 to 550 nm. Based on our UV-vis spectra, the contrast value for the resist is retrieved. We also provided a table that does the contrast comparison of the photography science, the photolithography and our UV-vis method. Our simplified CMTF measurement method yields the contrast of 1.11 and the CMTF of 0.8 for AZ 1500 at 365 nm. The CMTF measurement from the semiconductor fab requires 20-60 data points on one complete wafer to achieve the contrast value and the process latitude. Here CMTF from UV-vis requires two complete spectra. Because of the latent image, this new CMTF measurement is different from the old ways by applying UV-vis method. In the table, we compared the new method with the existing method of the photography and the semiconductor photolithography. Whether in the photography and the photolithography area, contrast is the baseline for the quality specification.

Ne-like Ar lasers operating at a wavelength of 46.9 nm have been developed by using of a three-coaxial-line Blumlein transmission line (BTL). The discharge system consists of a Marx generator with maximum charging voltage of 300kV, a Blumlein transmission line, as well as a pre-pulse circuit that provide maximum voltage of 20kV. Soft x-ray amplification in Ne-like Ar at 46.9nm with pulse energy of ~10μJ and duration time of 2ns has been achieved. The plasma columns are pumped by a 20~26kA current pulse with 130ns half-cycle duration in a 3.1mm-diameter and 19cm-length capillary channels filled with pre-ionized Ar gas at pressure of 30-40Pa. The beam profile was observed to have an annular shape and the peak-to-peak divergence is about 4.5 mrad. This new type of short wavelength laser is of interest for numerous applications such as materials ablation and nanopatterning in micro-technology.

New structures of micro-pump, biosensor in LOC (Lab-on-a-Chip) are studied. A round-path-chamber pumping principle is proposed to depress output fluctuation and increase output pressure of micro valve-less mechanical pump. Its prototype produces higher output pressure than the one with traditional column chamber. Two types of metal nanostructure array for LSPR (Localized Surface Plasmonic Resonance) biosensor were fabricated and tested, showing high sensitivity. Micro-channel is also discussed for realizing laminar flow above the metal nano-particles, to enable analytic samples to contact the metal nano-particles fully and stably.