High precision fabrication of antennas and sensors

Abstract

Electron and ion beam lithographies were used to fabricate and/or functionalize large scale - millimetre footprint - micro-optical elements: coupled waveguide-resonator structures on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and THz antennas on low temperature grown LT-GaAs. Waveguide elements on SOI were made without stitching errors using a fixed beam moving stage approach. THz antennas were created using a three-step litography process. First, gold THz antennas defined by standard mask projection lithography were annealed to make an ohmic contact on LT-GaAs and post-processing with Ga-ion beam was used to define nano-gaps and inter digitised contacts for better charge collection. These approaches show the possibility to fabricate large footprint patterns with nanoscale precision features and overlay accuracy. Emerging 3D nanofabrication trends are discussed.