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To: Bill Jackson who wrote (167231)	6/30/2002 11:32:12 AM
From: semiconeng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Looks like it will be a reach for multilayers, but some interesting things could be made from the starting point. Might be good for solar cells Bill A-HA, O.K., these images seem to show that there might still be some process issues to work out. In this SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) angle image, you can see the silicon sidewalls, and a couple of the process issues: princeton.edu The 10nm measurement, is the pushed up silicon at the edges of the Trenches from the melting process. It appears that the displaced material is not vaporized, and that amount of "Hump" along the edge of the Trench needs to be flat, so thAt subsequent layers will sit flat, not raised, like it is here. As I suspected, Planerization (grinding flat) of the tops of the trench walls, does seem to be required. The second issue I see, is good/bad. Notice, that as far as the sidewall height, the 110nm wall "Height Profile" is very vertically straight, and uniform along the Trench. The walls form very good 90 degree angles, especially good down in the corners at the Trench Bottom. A superior uniform height along the wall, with no lean. Looks very good, BUT.... BUT..... if you also look down the wall itself, the wall uniformity (smoothness) seems a little poor. Maybe no problem for Trenches, but with that uniformity, I'd have concerns about Poly, or Metal Interconnects. They need to do something about that if they want to use it for "Raised Layers". You can see here, that it could be partially due to uniformity of the quartz mold, which is magnified in the silicon. Maybe they can improve the mold itself. Not bad at this point though. princeton.edu So, it seems like, it's something that has allot of potential, and should produce some benefits down the road. The issues that I see, are the Sidewall Uniformity, Will the high temperatures involved in the Melting Process damage underlying layers, The cost of making the Quartz Molds vs Reticles, And the large footprint of the Eximer Laser. Other than that, at this stage of developmnt...... Looks Good. :-) Semi