Directed Self Assembly, nanoimprint and memristor nanowires for sub-10 nanometer nodes

Eetimes – Directed Self Assembly is gathering momentum to be used in major ways for advanced lithography The technology is moving from the lab to a more serious phase of commercial development.

In the event that EUV cannot be made commercially viable, there are several other possibilities for future chip scaling, including DSA. But some say DSA and other technologies may have a future role even if EUV is put into volume production for high-end, mainstream logic chips.

DSA—which is potentially much less expensive than EUV production—could have applications in, for example, flash memory production, where the regular structure of circuits and cost sensitivity of the market may make it attractive.

Thomas Russell a processor at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst detailed extensive work on the challenges of using DSA to create measurably perfect structures. Russell highlighted several outstanding challenges and said there may be a fundamental limit on how small structures made with DSA can be built.

Previous work has shown that directed self assembly seems to work down to 8 nanometers

Nanoimprinting has shown some robust patterning capabilities at sub-5 nanometers. and some nanoimprint researchers seem confident of 1-2 nanometers

Nanowires and memristors could get down to 2.6 nanometers

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The 2010 update of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors

International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors overview 74 pages

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