E-beam lithography tool manufacturer Vistec Lithography, Inc. has received a major order from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Berlin-Adlershof for one of its Vistec EBPG5000plus electron-beam lithography systems. The two companies will collaborate on further enhancing the Gaussian Beam system for generating advanced diffractive optics.
The enhancements to the tool are required for the x-ray imaging activities of BESSY I, the German 3rd generation synchrotron radiation facility, which is operated by the new Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH (HZB). The HZB was formed following the merger of the Hahn-Meitner-Institut Berlin (HMI) and BESSY.
The Vistec EBPG5000plusES will be used for patterning Fresnel zone plates with a minimum zone width below 20nm and for more standard e-beam lithography applications.
“The EBPG5000plusES combines both excellent resolution and the highest accuracy, which allows us to pattern the most enhanced Fresnel optics for soft and hard X-rays. With the new e-beam lithography system, we expect to develop stacked zone plates with unique performance in spatial resolution and efficiency for the soft and hard X-ray photon energy range”, said Dr. Gerd Schneider, Head of the X-ray microscopy activities at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.