CHARPAN - Charged Particle Nanotech is an Integrated Project (research priority NMP) started on 1 April 2005.

CHARPAN is driven by industrial needs for new efficient production technologies for the fabrication of complex 2D and 3D surface structures necessary in numerous nanotechnology devices such as templates for nanoimprint applications.

CHARPAN is based on the expertise of a team of 18 partners from industry, academia and research institutes from 10 countries (Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Spain and the United Kingdom). The project is coordinated by IMS, Vienna, Austria (IMS – Ionen Mikrofabrikations Systeme GmbH).

The CHARPAN Proof-Of-Concept (POC) Tool will be built in the first 18 months of the project. Within 24 months the CHARPAN Prototype Tool will be ready for use by all consortium partners.

The design and manufacturing of 3D nano-patterning Charpan tool based on charged particle multi beams are progressing. The key part of the tool is generating a dynamic pattern through a programmable aperture plate. Using charged particle projection optics with 200x reduction the aim is to generate a multitude of <25nm (⇒<10nm) focused beams at the substrate working in parallel. Industrial applications in the field of "Above IC" nanoimprinting and further emerging nanotechnology applications, e.g. in the field of nanophotonics and nanobiotechnology will be developed and analysed.

The innovative core of the CHARPAN system is a charged particle optical column comprising of ion source, a condenser system to form a broad parallel beam, a programmable aperture plate to structure the beam, and a charged particle projection beam optics with 200x reduction to reduce the shaped beams to form a multitude of high intensity charged particle beams with ultra-high resolution working at the substrate in parallel.

The parallel structured beam used in CHARPAN removes any material along the beam direction. Typical ion sputter removal rates are ~ 1 - 10 sputtered atoms per incident ion and are varying by a factor of 5 to 10 for different materials. If precursor gases are used, removal rates or deposition rates can be enhanced to more than 20 atoms / ion. The sputter rate reaches maximum values for energies that are in the order of magnitude used with CHARPAN.

Besides sputtering, the versatile CHARPAN technology offers several other beam induced patterning processes, such as beam assisted etching, deposition, polishing, nanometer resolved ion implantation and ion beam mixing. These processes are regarded to be fundamental for a large number of promising CHARPAN applications for emerging nanotechnology industries.

Among the most promising applications are 3D Nanoimprint Template fabrication for Micro- and Nanooptics and Biomedical Devices.

Compared with FIB (single focused ion beam) tools, CHARPAN has three orders of magnitude less current density, which is a decisive advantage when using gas assisted etching or deposition processes. With mA/cm2 current density there is sufficient time to cover the sample with the desired layer of the precursor gas material.

With respect to productivity CHARPAN offers enhancements by three orders of magnitude when compared to existing FIB techniques, since with CHARPAN the total ion beam current is in the order of nA whereas for FIB systems at 10 nm resolution the current is limited to pA.