Title:

Chemistries for Enabling Nanomanufacturing

Speaker:

Dr. Al Nelson

Affiliation:

IBM Almaden Research Center

When:

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 at 4:00:00 PM   Add to Calendar

Where:

MoSE Building, Room G011

Host:

Aeryal Herrod
aeryal.herrod@chemistry.gatech.edu

Abstract

Nanomanufacturing in the semiconductor industry is driven by lithography. This seminar with provide an overview of some of our work to develop chemistries for patterning in the semiconductor field and beyond. First, photopatternable low-k dielectric materials will be discussed. Currently, low-k materials, which are used as insulating layers between the copper wiring, are indirectly patterned using a set of sacrificial layers and etch processes. In order to reduce the number of processing steps required for semiconductor manufacturing, we have developed a photopatternable low-k dielectric material that (1) eliminates the need for sacrificial layers and (2) reduces the number of wafer processing steps. Next, a simple and facile strategy for high-throughput directed self-assembly of nanoparticles on lithographically defined substrates via spin-coating will be presented. The two-dimensional arrangements of nanoparticles were formed deterministically by the strategic placement of resist features on the substrate in just 30 seconds. Finally, the integration of dynamic covalent chemistry into nanoimprint lithography will be discussed. Reversible Diels-Alder chemistry was utilized to transfer features onto an aliphatic polycarbonate film in the presence of a silicon master and heat.

Biography

Alshakim Nelson received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2004, where he worked with Sir J. Fraser Stoddart on carbohydrate-containing polymers and macrocycles. He was then an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the California Institute of Technology working for Professor Robert Grubbs on olefin metathesis catalysts for the formation of supramolecular ensembles. Dr. Nelson has been a Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center since 2005, where he focuses on synthesizing building blocks that enable large area nanomanufacturing via self-assembly. His research interests also include silicon-based polymers for lithographic applications, magnetic nanoparticles, directed self-assembly of nanoparticles, and hydrogen bonding block copolymers. Dr. Nelson has over 80 publications and 11 issued patents, and in 2011 he was designated as an IBM Master Inventor. In 2012, he became manager of the Nanomaterials Group, which includes the Synthetic Development Lab.