Researchers in Nano-FIB, an EU-funded nanotechnology project, have moved almost as fast as their invention's ion beams in getting their technology out of the lab and ready for commercial rollout. The official transfer of their technology was marked last month by a ceremony at France's national research centre, the CNRS.

Working at the nano-scale demands very precise instruments, such as focused ion beams which can manipulate material at a smaller scale than ever before. Nano-FIB set out, in 2001, to take a gallium-based focused ion beam (FIB) and make it smaller and more precise. The team aimed to produce a controllable FIB ‘pencil' or beam of energy less than 10 nanometres (nm) in diameter.

The three-year €2.8 million EU-backed project did more than that, according to project director Jacques Gierak of the Laboratory of Photonics and Nanostructures at CNRS. It trimmed the FIB target of 5 nm down to 3 nm which, from a scientific point of view, is “a roaring success” for this Fifth Framework Programme project.

The game plan was always to get the technology to market quickly. “We were all working together before [the EU project] got off the ground, and we've kept close contacts since Nano-FIB officially finished 18 months ago,” says Gierak. Like the ion beam they developed, this has controlled the team's focus on commercial exit. Work continues. Several SMEs were brought into the partners' labs to help construct equipment for the new experiments carried out since the EU contract ended.

Indeed, the Nano-FIB research team – a consortium of eight European research institutes and universities, and two SMEs – is now focused on making the new technology a business success as well. CNRS has agreed to grant exclusive licensing rights to one of the consortium's German SMEs, Dortmund-based Raith GmbH. This took place on 27 October 2005 at a ceremony hosted by the CNRS. Nano-FIB took that opportunity to present a prototype of its new ion-beam machine.

Sharply focused objectives
Working at the scale of a few molecules demands very precise instruments. Nano-FIB's machine focuses its ion beam so precisely that it can carve molecular-scale structures, etchings and pre-defined defects on a substrate surface with nanometre accuracy. “It's like sculpting with a chisel and hammer, only at the level of a group of atoms at a time,” explains Gierak.

The EU supports research into this kind of technology because of its potential revolutionary impact across a broad range of industrial applications. The most familiar use of such small-scale fabrication technologies is for manufacturing microprocessors and other integrated circuits. Typically, a silicon crystal is etched and doped with other elements using light-beam patterning methods. But light beams are reaching their limit, although extreme ultraviolet technology will extend the possibilities of optical patterning, say experts.

Future possibilities include electron beam lithography, which can print a pattern on a semiconductor wafer in a single operation. But again, electron scattering limits that beam's definition to about 10 nm. To overcome these limitations, Nano-FIB has boosted ion-beam technology by producing a far more precise beam and a direct-write ion beam process that is largely free of toxic chemicals and material waste.

The active electrode is a fine tungsten needle coated with the liquidised gallium and placed in a vacuum. Electric charges shape the liquid metal into a cone and, at a critical voltage, its apex becomes a jet. This jet is focused with an electrostatic device, rather than the magnetic lens used to focus electrons, because the gallium ions are much heavier than electrons. Nano-FIB's patented design and architecture produces an optically bright beam of ions that can be very sharply focused.

The resulting final resolution of 3 nm is suitable for many applications and market opportunities. For instance, an arrangement of gold nano-particles on a graphite surface has already been produced. The graphite, which has an atomically flat surface, can be scored with local defects by the ion beam in order to trap other metal particles, thus building up controlled, patterned structures for use in nano-electronics and nano-magnetic research and applications.

Another enticing possibility is to exploit Nano-FIB's beam to create tiny patterns on thin magnetic crystalline films for use in ultra high-density magnetic data storage machines. “We're currently using the technology to prove the stability of magnetic ‘nano-islands' as a storage medium,” says Gierak, noting that a successful conclusion of such experiments would carry the storage capacity of magnetic recording media into the realm of a Tera-byte per square inch.

Finally, Nano-FIB's ultra-fine beam is also trained on the field of bio-medical research where Gierak and partners are toying with new ways to isolate pieces of DNA. “The applications are unfolding in all directions, and we think this new technology offers great potential for job-creation, quality of life and especially for the retention in Europe of scientific expertise,” he concludes.

Source : http://europa.eu.int