Interferometric Lithography

For more information, contact: Lisa Kuuttila

Summary

The Bright LED market is projected to exceed $20 billion by FY2010. These expectations are driven by the energy savings that LED’s promise as they become the predominant lighting source for public-lighting, traffic signals, industry, signage displays, LCD illumination and ultimately to light our homes. Breakthroughs in white and blue LED’s have ignited the race to replace Edison’s ubiquitous light-bulb; however, realization of the economic potential is dependent on increasing the brightness efficiency of high-index LED’s.

Wavelength-scale (photonic crystal) patterning improves LED external quantum efficiency by scattering photons from bound modes trapped within the high refractive-index crystal into useful free-space radiation. While this has been known for some time, what has been lacking is a reliable cost-effective technique for creating nano-scale features on a manufacturing level.

Interferometric lithography (IL), developed at the University of New Mexico, is a facile, inexpensive, wide-area patterning technique that cost effectively reaches the requisite dimensions and is readily scaled to high volume manufacturing. It can significantly improve the efficiency of LEDs and enhance directional emission light.

Science & Technology Corporation @ UNM is working with the inventor of this technology, Dr. Steven R. J. Brueck (http://www.chtm.unm.edu/brueck/) to launch a NM based start-up to commercialize this revolutionary process technology. STC’s plans are to further develop the UNM interferometric lithography technology to supply a small footprint tool, or proprietary process, for use in both industry and labs. The compelling aspect of the UNM IL process is the rapid thru-put made possible by the wide-area maskless exposure, enabling cost effective improvements in LED brightness and other wafer based devices that can benefit from low cost surface features.

STC and Dr. Brueck are seeking an experienced entrepreneur to participate in the start-up of the company, the identification of appropriate equity capital, and leading the commercialization of the tool.

Market Description

IL is a cost-effective, rapid, facile, wide-area imaging process that addresses the rising need for maskless quasi-periodic nanoscale patterns. It uses interference between two coherent laser beams to provide simple route to the nanoscale fabrication.

IL is useful in many applications, such as nanofluidics, plasmonics and metamaterials, photonic crystals, and field-emission displays. Demonstrated advantages of IL include:
• Parallel optical process -- scalable to full wafer areas
• Maskless -- changing pitch, aperture/period ratio, pattern symmetry, is rapid and inexpensive
• Can reach entire range of periods of interest for blue LEDs
• Can produce masks for imprint lithography manufacturing approaches

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