RAPID: A NEW NANOFABRICATION PROCESS

For exploring the full potentiality of nanotechnology and its sea like vast application in elctronics and hardware industry, the ability to create tiny patterns is important. They are extremely important for fabrication of computer chips and many other application. Yet, creating ever smaller features, through a widely-used process called photolithography, has required the use of ultraviolet light, which is difficult and expensive to work with. John Fourkas, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the University of Maryland College of Chemical and Life Sciences, and his research group have developed a new, table-top technique called RAPID (Resolution Augmentation through Photo-Induced Deactivation) lithography that makes it possible to create small features without the use of ultraviolet light. Photolithography uses light to deposit or remove material and create patterns on a surface. There is usually a direct relationship between the wavelength of light used and the feature size created. Therefore, nanofabrication has depended on short wavelength ultraviolet light to generate ever smaller features.

The RAPID lithography technique have been developed to create patterns twenty times smaller than the wavelength of light employed; by this process it streamlines the nanofabrication process. That’s how RAPID can be used in many applications in areas such as electronics, optics, and biomedical devices.

In this process, two laser lights of same color have been used for controlling the operation. First, short burst of light used to harden the material and secondly, a constant light source used to prevent it. The technique has been highly appreciated for its easiness to implement, as there is no need to control the timing between two different pulsed lasers.