Adaptive Substrate Support Based on Thin-Film Piezoelectric Actuators

Abstract

Advanced lithography scanners require extreme substrate flatness in the range of nanometers to prevent focus errors. Such a flatness is challenging to reach and maintain using static substrate supports. Active correction concepts using bulk piezoelectric or linear actuators become prohibitive due to wiring and volume limitations, considering the thousands of pillars required. In this work, we present to our knowledge the first ever demonstration of an active substrate support concept based on thin-film piezoelectric actuators. The working principle, fabrication steps, and characterization of a proof-of-principle device, supported by finite element modeling (FEM), are presented in detail. The fabricated device shows a displacement above 9 nm, which is sufficient to correct some of the focus errors in lithography systems. We foresee that this new concept may open the way towards smaller chip dimensions and improved yield.

Thermodynamic stability of twisted domains in AgCrSe₂ thin films grown on lattice-matched YSZ(111) substrate
Haruto Sato, Kota Mihara, Kenshin Inamura +4
arXiv22 May 2026PreprintarXiv licenceFull textCondensed matterarXiv
Substrate-controlled epitaxial-like growth of photochromic yttrium oxyhydride thin films
M. Zubkins, E. Strods, E. Letko +7
arXiv14 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY-NC-ND 4.0Full textCondensed matterarXiv
Effect of Source-to-Substrate Distance on the Optical and Electrical Properties of Thermally Deposited CdTe, CdSe and Sb₂S₃ Thin Films
Himanshu Sharma Pathok, Prasanta Kumar Saikia
arXiv5 Oct 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterarXiv
Substrate-dependent thermally driven morphological evolution of Pt_0.9Ni_0.1 thin films on sapphire and langasite
M. Awais Fiaz, M. Greenslit, R. J. Lad +3
arXiv6 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterarXiv
Bridging cone-beam CT and MRI to stopping power ratio maps: a modality-agnostic Brownian bridge approach to support robust adaptive proton therapy
Yuhao Yan, Qisheng He, Minglei Kang +4
arXiv28 Sep 2026PreprintCC BY 4.0Full textBiological & medical physicsarXiv

Cite

BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{simsek2026adaptive,
  title = {{Adaptive Substrate Support Based on Thin-Film Piezoelectric Actuators}},
  author = {Ertuğ Şimşek and Bas Jansen and Marcelo Ackermann and Muharrem Bayraktar},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.18653},
  eprint = {2609.18653},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18653},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Adaptive Substrate Support Based on Thin-Film Piezoelectric Actuators
AU  - Ertuğ Şimşek
AU  - Bas Jansen
AU  - Marcelo Ackermann
AU  - Muharrem Bayraktar
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/16
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.18653
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.18653
AB  - Advanced lithography scanners require extreme substrate flatness in the range of nanometers to prevent focus errors. Such a flatness is challenging to reach and maintain using static substrate supports. Active correction concepts using bulk piezoelectric or linear actuators become prohibitive due to wiring and volume limitations, considering the thousands of pillars required. In this work, we present to our knowledge the first ever demonstration of an active substrate support concept based on thin-film piezoelectric actuators. The working principle, fabrication steps, and characterization of a proof-of-principle device, supported by finite element modeling (FEM), are presented in detail. The fabricated device shows a displacement above 9 nm, which is sufficient to correct some of the focus errors in lithography systems. We foresee that this new concept may open the way towards smaller chip dimensions and improved yield.
ER  -

Abstract

Related

Cite