Enhancing Materials for High-Resolution Patterning

To increase processing speed and reduce power consumption of electronic devices, the microelectronics industry continues to push for smaller feature sizes. Transistors in today's cellphones are typically 10 nanometers (nm) across — about 50 silicon atoms wide — or smaller. Scaling transistors down below these dimensions with higher accuracy requires advanced materials for lithography — the primary technique for printing electrical circuit elements on silicon wafers to manufacture electronic chips. One challenge is developing robust resists, or materials used as templates for transferring circuit patterns into device-useful substrates such as silicon.