Dispersion force masked-based helium atom lithography

Dispersion force masked-based helium atom lithography

As Margrethe Vestager, European Commission Executive Vice-President, said “There is no ‘digital’ without chips”. Leading-edge semiconductors provide the foundation of the digitalization of entire sectors and industries that are transforming the EU economy and of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Photolithography is currently used for the initial patterning step of chip manufacturing and leading-edge chips require smaller and smaller features. The smallest features that can be produced with this technology (26 nm at present and expected to reach 16 nm in 2028) not only limits the performance and power efficiency of leading-edge chips, but also the opening of new markets linked to quantum devices and silicon devices with integrated light sources. FabouLACE project catches this opportunity through a disruptive lithography approach that uses metastable atoms and dispersion force-based masks and enables features of 2 nm. The technology, currently at proof of concept stage and protected by two patents, will be brought at TRL 6 by the end of the project by developing a prototype. Its performances will be validated together with Imec (key actor in the development, testing and early adoption of nano- and digital technology innovations, including lithography) and end-users in the markets of interest. The spin-off Lace, founded in 2022, will bring the technology to the market by 2031. The technology has already attracted a great interest among investors (450k€ raised in few months) and among the major foundry Intel that accepted Lace in its highly competitive start-up program intel-ignite. Market and business readiness will be developed together with end-users and leveraging on the economic support from investors (>3M€ private funding expected to be attracted by 2026). The technological and business maturation is expected to result in as much as 628M€ in revenue in the 2031-2036 period. Let the quantum future begin.