Fabrication of 15 nm wide trenches in Si by vacuum scanning tunneling microscope lithography of an organosilane self-assembled film and reactive ion etching
Organosilane precursor molecules, here (aminoethylaminomethyl)phenethyltrimethoxysilane, or PEDA, are chemisorbed onto a Si surface forming a monolayer thick film. These films are patterned using the scanning tunneling microscope to locally modify the chemical reactivity and are then used as a template for selective electroless plating of a thin Ni film. Reactive ion etching in a C2F6/O2 mixture transfers this pattern into the substrate. Improvement over previous lithographic performance is achieved by growing the films on a passivated and lightly oxidized Si surface, optimizing the patterning conditions, and improving the metallization and etch chemistry. In this way, we have generated deep trenches on the order of 15±4 nm width, with edge roughness of 3 nm. We believe this demonstrates the resolution limiting factors of this lithographic process.