Equipment: MRI: Track 2 Acquisition of an Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) Resist Flood Exposure Tool

About This Grant

Modern life depends on powerful computer chips that run everything from smartphones to medical devices. Making these chips requires creating incredibly small features, far tinier than the width of a human hair. To achieve this, the electronics industry now uses a special kind of light called extreme ultraviolet (EUV). This new technology allows the production of smaller, faster, and more efficient chips. However, a major problem is the lack of EUV tools to advance this technology, and they are not easily accessible. This project will install an EUV tool at Johns Hopkins University and make it available as a shared resource for scientists and engineers across the country. The facility will drive innovation in electronics and train the next generation of students to allow them to succeed in fields such as semiconductors, photonics, and quantum technologies, which are areas critical to the nation’s future economy and security. This project will establish a state-of-the-art facility to advance photoresist research in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. The project will enable systematic investigations that are not feasible with limited beamline access. The new EUV flood exposure tool combines a reliable discharge plasma source with precise dose control and efficient light delivery, providing stable and reproducible exposures. Integrated in situ diagnostics, including total electron yield measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry, will allow direct observation of chemical changes and outgassing phenomena during exposure. These capabilities are essential for understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern EUV resist performance. Initial projects will include amorphous metal-organic framework all-dry resists, vapor-synthesized metal-containing resists, sequence-controlled polypeptoid resists, and solution-deposited inorganic sol-gel systems. Together, these efforts will broaden the chemical design space for EUV lithography, reveal new reaction pathways, and establish guidelines for sustainable, high-resolution patterning. By coupling in situ diagnostics with systematic material screening, researchers will be able to efficiently select promising resist candidates and define structure-property relationships, paving the way for higher sensitivity, reduced line-edge roughness, and environmentally responsible formulations. Intellectually, this effort will deepen fundamental knowledge of EUV-driven chemistry, inform resist design principles across diverse material classes, and strengthen the scientific foundation for future nanofabrication technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.