PHOTONIC ACTIVATION OF REACTANTS FOR SUB-MICRON FEATURE FORMATION USING DEPLETED BEAMS

摘要

A fine feature formation method and apparatus provide photon induced deposition, etch and thermal or photon based treatment in an area of less than the diameter or cross section of a STED depleted laser beam. At least two STED depleted beams are directed to a reaction location on a substrate where a beam overlap region having an area smaller than the excitation portion of the beams is formed. A reactant or reactants introduced to the reaction region is excited by the combined energy of the excitation portions of the two beams, but not excited outside of the overlap region of the two excitation portions of the beams. A reactant is caused to occur only in the overlap region. The overlap region may be less that 20 nm wide, and less than 1 nm in width, to enable the formation of substrate features, or the change in the substrate, in a small area.

主权项

1. A method of supplying reactant activation energy to a sub-micron area, comprising:
providing a first photon energy beam having a core region and a surrounding depleted region; providing a second photon energy beam having a core region and a surrounding depleted region; and positioning the first photon energy beam and the second photon energy beam to overlap in a first overlap region wherein the overlap area of the first overlap region is less than an area of either the first photon energy beam or the second photon energy beam.