Sanders to demonstrate new X-ray lithography

Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are asking engineers at Sanders, a Lockheed Martin company in Nashua, N.H., to demonstrate a stand-alone X-ray exposure system to enhance the capabilities of semiconductor manufacturers to print monolithic microwave integrated circuits - better known as MMICs - with fine dimensions at high throughputs. Under a $10.5 million DARPA contract, experts at the Sanders Microwave Electronics Division will develop and demonstrate a point-source X-ray lithography system with X-ray stepper, X-ray point source, and beamline interface to connect the stepper with the source. This kind of system produces circuits by "stepping" a series of X-ray exposures across a wafer to enable throughput levels greater than those available through electron beam lithography. - J.K.