Precision positioning for thermal scanning probe lithography

Thermal scanning probe lithography is a comparatively new method for creating arbitrary depth topographical features at the nano-scale. The same tip can be used for patterning as well as imaging, allowing highly accurate stitching and overlay functionality below 10 nm on a 10 um field. In this publication, we report the efforts to ensure the hold stability when scaling the mechanics to an 8" wafer positioning system.