Collaboration miniaturises chip features
Carl Zeiss has yielded its first successful results following funding of high-tech equipment for research partner IMS Chips
The Zeiss Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology business group and the Institut fuer Mikroelektronik Stuttgart (IMS Chips) are working together on the development of nanopatterned optical components.
These components make it possible to shrink feature sizes on chips in order to make them smaller, less expensive, more powerful, and more energy-efficient.
IMS Chips develops key elements of these nanometre optics. However, the challenge of continuously shrinking feature sizes requires ever bulkier and more expensive equipment, which is why IMS Chips decided to invest in a next-generation electron beam writer.
The funding of this high-tech equipment was made possible thanks to a collaborative research agreement between Zeiss and IMS Chips. Financial support was provided both by the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Zeiss.