Membrane
Advanced CNT membranes, customized for application-specific needs. Increase productivity in high-power EUV lithography with CNT pellicle membranes, improve quality control in patterned mask inspection with inspection membranes, and enable selective wavelength filtration with optical filters. Made from advanced carbon nanotubes, known for their exceptional purity and properties.
Canatu CNT membranes: a versatile platform technology
The semiconductor industry is rapidly evolving, driven by AI and computing advancements, with sub-7nm chips made using EUV technology growing the fastest. EUV enables higher transistor density, resulting in smaller and more efficient chips. These chips power everything from Apple iPhones to NVIDIAs AI accelerators. Canatu is a key technology supplier for EUV, providing advanced carbon nanotube (CNT) products and reactors for the semiconductor industry.
Canatu’s advanced CNT membranes support various EUV applications, including CNT pellicle membranes for high-power EUV lithography, which protect photomasks from defects and increase productivity; inspection membranes for patterned mask inspection and mask blank inspection, which filter debris and improve quality control; and optical filters for selective wavelength filtration. In addition to CNT products, we offer CNT reactors and technology licensing, enabling in-house production of these high-precision membranes.
At the core of our differentiated, IPR-protected technology is the proprietary Dry Deposition process, which offers significant advantages over traditional wet dispersion of CNTs. It simplifies production while yielding longer, stronger, and purer CNTs, enabling higher performance in end applications.
Canatu CNT membranes are highly uniform and have a unique combination of properties that are unmatched by traditional materials. They feature up to 97% EUV transmission, thermal stability up to 1500°C in a vacuum, and exceptional mechanical durability, making them ideal for the extreme environments of high-power EUVL.
- High EUV transmission >97%
- High thermal stability >1500°C in vacuum
- Exceptional mechanical strength
- Customized for application-specific requirements
Download technical paper
Please download the most recent 2023 SPIE Photomask + EUVL Conference proceedings to gain deeper understanding of our versatile platform technology, unique CNT synthesis and direct dry deposition benefits, common tailoring, and potential uses for our carbon nanotube membranes.
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Canatu CNT properties
High EUV transmission
Canatu’s ultra-thin CNT membranes provide up to 97% transmission at EUV/X-ray wavelengths with minimal scattering, ensuring precise pattern printing. In EUV pellicle applications, higher transmission allows more EUV light to reach the wafer, enhancing throughput. Canatu CNT pellicle membranes support productivity increase potential in EUVL by up to 8–15%.
High heat resistance
Canatu CNT membranes offer exceptional heat resistance, enduring extreme temperatures without degradation or structural damage. They can withstand up to 1500°C in a vacuum, outperforming quartz, which breaks at 1200°C, and polyimide, which decomposes below 520°C.
High mechanical strength
The high tensile strength of one-dimensional carbon nanotubes makes the two-dimensional membranes mechanically robust. Their slight elasticity allows them to withstand unexpected mechanical loads without breaking or shattering. In CNT pellicle and inspection membrane applications, this elasticity helps protect system integrity in case of accidents or unforeseen events.
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Our products
Canatu CNT pellicle membranes protect photomasks from particle contamination in high-power (>500W) EUV lithography machines. With high EUV transmittance, exceptional strength, and thermal stability up to 1500°C in a vacuum, they outperform conventional composite pellicles in handling extreme heat and mechanical stress of next-gen EUVL machines. Canatu CNT pellicle membranes can increase EUVL productivity by up to 8-15%. Discover the product.
Industry coverage
How carbon nanotubes can transform the semiconductor industry
Carbon nanotubes present a game-changing solution for preventing defects in EUV lithography, supporting the semiconductor industry’s drive toward extreme miniaturization and improved chip reliability.
Published in Electronic Design on Jan.10, 2025.
Roadblocks to significant yield and cost improvement for chip manufacturers
In chipmaking, a single defect can ruin an entire silicon wafer worth $20,000, a costly margin of error that can accumulate into millions and even billions of losses in the production ledger over time.
Published in Semiconductor Digest‘s Aug/Sep issue 2024.
Novel dry deposition revolutionizes carbon nanotubes
Contemporary production methods create CNTs that fall short of expectations. To realize the full potential of CNTs requires a new production method that significantly improves their quality. Only then can they help the semiconductor industry deliver on the insatiable demands for advanced chips.
Published in EE Times on June 21st, 2024
New materials are in high demand
As the semiconductor industry pushes the boundaries in scaling, performance, and cost, advanced materials like carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are becoming increasingly pivotal. While CNTs themselves aren’t new, producing and customizing them at scale has remained a challenge —until now.
Published in Semiconductor Engineering on September 19th, 2024
Differentiated, IPR-protected technology for CNT membrane fabrication
Canatu carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are synthesized from carbon gases using a floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FC-CVD) reactor. The CNTs are collected on a filter and Dry Deposited onto an open frame or border, forming a free-standing CNT membrane. Canatu’s proprietary Dry Deposition process offers significant material advantages over wet dispersion of carbon nanotubes, simplifying production while yielding longer, stronger, and more pristine nanotubes for higher performance in end applications. This unique process is used to manufacture ultra-thin, strong, and uniform CNT membranes, which are then post-processed to meet application-specific requirements.
Canatu CNTs are renowned for their exceptional quality, purity, and performance. Our unique expertise lies in precise control over every aspect of the FC-CVD synthesis process, from catalyst formation and activation to temperature gradients, reagent gases, and reactor design. With over a decade of mass production experience, Canatu excels in tailoring CNTs to meet the exact requirements of diverse applications.
Highly versatile CNT membranes with extensive customization options
Canatu CNTs provide the versatility and reliability needed for highly engineered solutions. Both individual CNT properties and CNT membrane morphology can be precisely tuned. For example, the number of CNT walls can be modified, offering flexibility between single-walled (SWCNT) and multi-walled CNTs (MWCNT). Multi-walled CNTs are particularly beneficial for optimizing covalent coating processes. Additionally, tube diameter and chirality can be modified independently of wall count.
Bundle size and membrane morphology can be tuned during synthesis to optimize coating processes. This allows for controlling factors such as reducing the total surface area that needs to be coated or limiting exposure to potentially harmful environments. Additionally, to fine-tune coating properties, the surface chemistry of CNTs can be pre-treated through targeted surface functionalization. If specific anisotropic properties, such as mechanical or electrical properties, are desired, the orientation of the CNT network can be precisely controlled. However, an isotropic orientation is preferred in EUV applications where minimizing scattering and flare is essential.
This versatile platform technology can be further enhanced through chemical functionalization and coatings. For example, coatings can be used to filter out deep ultraviolet (DUV) photons in optical filters or to create gas seals that separate compartments in EUV machinery. CNTs can be coated using conventional PVD, ALD, or CVD methods, as well as a novel electrochemical coating technique. The electrochemical approach offers advantages such as improved conformality and precise thickness control.
Finally, metal nanoparticles can be removed to ensure membrane purity. Since metals are commonly used as catalysts in CNT synthesis, purification is often essential. Any outgassing or material ejection at high temperatures could damage other components within EUV machinery.
Canatu CNT membranes are suitable for various applications and engineered to excel in demanding conditions, such as next-generation high-power EUV lithography and optical filtering. For example, thicker and densely coated CNT membranes can filter debris from an EUV source, block DUV photons that could harm mirrors, detectors, or photoresists used in EUV machinery, and create effective gas seals to control differential pressure. Additionally, Canatu CNT membranes are well-suited for optical filters, blocking particles, electrons, and photons outside the desired energy range.
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Related content
Canatu shipped its second S-100 reactor to a global semiconductor customer for CNT pellicle membrane production in December 2024. See press release.
