Optimal seed planting for growth-regulated nanomanufacturing

We develop, model, and optimize a growth-regulated nanomanufacturing method which is more flexible and cost-effective than conventional serial nanomanufacturing methods. An automated system is designed which takes a geometric representation of an object as the input, produces the growth-initiating ¿seed¿ positions for entry to fabrication tools, and gives the grown object as the output. Electron beam lithography is used to fabricate gold seeds, which is followed by copper deposition via electroplating. To improve the structure precision, we first present a model for seed-initiated material growth based on Green´s function calculations. This model is then used to develop an algorithm for optimal seed planting to produce the highest accuracy object with the fewest number of tool moves. Both the model and the optimization algorithm are validated by experimental results.