Patent ID: 9329484
Filing Date: 2016-05-03
CPC Classification: G03F

Claim Text:
1. A direct-write lithography apparatus for forming in a two-color photoresist layer on a substrate sub-resolution photoresist pixels, wherein the two-color photoresist layer includes photo-molecules, comprising: an illumination system configured to provide an illumination light having a wavelength capable of exciting the photo-molecules in the two-color photoresist to form excited-state photo-molecules; at least one image transducer having an array of configurable transducer pixels arranged to receive and selectively modulate the illumination light; an objective lens arranged to receive the modulated illumination light from the at least one image transducer and form on the two-color photoresist layer a transducer image having an arrangement of bright spots, with each bright spot having a first size and being formed by a corresponding activated transducer pixel; a stage that movably supports the substrate; an inhibition image generator arranged relative to the objective lens and adapted to operate in combination with the objective lens to generate at the two-color photoresist an inhibition image from inhibition light having an inhibition wavelength that causes excited-state photo-molecules to transition to an unexcited state that is not susceptible to conversion to an irreversible exposed state, wherein the inhibition image includes an array of dark spots; and wherein the array of dark spots are aligned with the bright spots and are smaller than the bright spots so that a portion of the excited-state photo-molecules adjacent the periphery of the bright spots absorb the inhibition radiation and transition to the unexcited state, while a portion of the excited photo-molecules at the center of the bright spots are not exposed to the inhibition light and transition to an irreversible exposed state, thereby forming in the two-color photoresist a set of sub-resolution photoresist pixels each having a size smaller than would be formed in the absence of the dark spots.