SBIR-STTR Award

Atomically Precise Manufacturing will bring enormous energy savings through improved efficiency in power generation and use, via light weighting, reduced friction and wear, and a host of other improvements in materials and active mechanisms. Atomically Precise Manufacturing will bring considerable benefit to our technology, economy, and standard of living. However, significant technological development will be required before Atomically Precise Manufacturing can be realized as a reliable and efficient manufacturing process. A promising technology that is being used to develop Atomically Precise Manufacturing is Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) based hydrogen depassivation lithography that can make atomically precise patterns on surfaces. However, hydrogen depassivation lithography is in early stages of transitioning from a microscope technology to a lithography technology. Currently a human expert is required to look at images and make some judgement calls about how to complete the patterning process. To get the human out of the loop so that the patterning process can be automated, faster, and more reliable, Artificial Intelligence guided by physics of the system will be developed to provide the required image analysis capabilities. In Phase I, Zyvex Labs will work with applied Artificial Intelligence experts at Oak Ridge National Lab to develop an AI STM image analysis capability that can identify key features on the Si (100) 2X1 H passivated surfaces. This will allow automated assessment of the lithography process as it is being carried out so that conditions may be optimized even in the face of tip variation and surface defects to create atomically precise patterns. The image analysis will also enable error detection and correction processes to approach patterning perfection. Using these capabilities we will develop sophisticated and adaptable automation processes. If successfully developed, Artificial Intelligence guided hydrogen depassivation lithography will initially make small but extremely valuable products like solid state Analog Quantum Simulation devices to better understand quantum physics and help bring the expected amazing range benefits of quantum materials to the general public, and perhaps a little further down the road the spectacular benefits of quantum computation and communication. Even though massively parallel hydrogen depassivation lithography will be developed, it will still have limited throughput capabilities that can be leveraged by using hydrogen depassivation lithography to make nanoimprint or even roll to roll templates that will dramatically reduce the cost of making extremely accurate patterns at the nanoscale and above. One example application would be Atomically Precise membrane filters which will dramatically reduce manufacturing costs in chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical processing.

Hydrogen Depassivation Lithography is a promising atomic precision tool with the potential to produce energy efficient processes, devices, and materials by exploiting quantum technology. This patterning technology is based on scanning tunneling microscope instrumentation. Up to now, opportunities for advancing research and its application to manufacturing have been limited due to the poor reliability and lack of automation often associated with scanning tunneling microscopes. This STTR project will develop physics-based artificial intelligence algorithms run on a proprietary operational system which will remove the tedious, time-consuming manual processes to enable a fully autonomous atomic precision lithography process. This will improve the productivity and reliability of research tools and pave the way for highly parallel tools that could be used for manufacturing of products such as quantum computers. In Phase I, artificial intelligence developed image recognition algorithms were created that successfully identified the position of all atoms in a scanning tunneling microscope image of the surface. A defect- detection algorithm was also developed to identify and classify typical defects on the surface - typically a time-consuming manual process. Another success was that an additional algorithm was demonstrated that identified the atomic step edges that are the boundaries of single atomic terraces, making identification highly robust with respect to all possible elements observed on the surface. In Phase II, we will integrate these algorithms into a scanning tunneling microscope control system in order to automate atomic precision lithography, establishing human supervised real time feedback between the operational microscope platform and the Artificial Intelligence system. We also plan to develop process optimization algorithms to improve the speed and performance of the processes including error detection and correction, tip state optimization, elucidation of manipulation conditions, and real time object-based feedback for automated manipulation. The combination of our artificial intelligence combined with our proprietary control system will essentially bring mass production to the quantum scale. Because of the significant boost in federal funding for quantum research via the National Quantum Initiative Act and the much higher and broader level of industrial interest in quantum compared to other nanotechnologies, there will be truly revolutionary new developments in sensing, communication, and computing technologies. This will create a significant boost to the nanolithography research market and open a path for atomic precision manufacturing tools for quantum technologies. Solid state quantum technologies require higher precision than state-of-the-art semiconductor devices and will therefore create a significant business opportunity. Because Hydrogen Depassivation Lithography has dramatically better resolution and precision than even the most advanced semiconductor lithography tools or E- Beam Lithography tools, our team is extremely well positioned to break into this new sector of the research nanolithography market. We have a scanning tunneling microscope control system designed for hydrogen depassivation lithography already on the market which will directly benefit from the technology developed in this program.