Small scale, big impact: the world’s thinnest and strongest free-standing carbon nanotube membrane

Sometimes the biggest impact can be made in the smallest details. Canatu pioneers the future of semiconductor manufacturing and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography with its freestanding carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane pellicles that protect photomasks from particles and defects, enhancing precision, shortening processing, and increasing production efficiency per wafer. When the already remarkable 1-dimensional intrinsic properties of virtually defect-free CNTs are expanded into a 2-dimensional network, this added degree of freedom results in a membrane with an unequaled combination of optical and mechanical properties, that may truly provide solutions for the extreme physics of EUV at increasing powers. Here, we demonstrate the extensive customizability and versatility of Canatu’s CNT synthesis and freestanding network fabrication processes. For example, the fine structure and chemistry of individual tubes, as well as the mesoscopic morphology of the network can be optimized extensively. In practice, this enables precise control over the size and type of catalyst particles, as well as the diameter of the tube and the number of walls in the carbon nanotube (Single, Double, or Multi-walled). The orientation of the CNTs in the network can also be controlled, and the CNTs can be induced to form either larger or smaller bundles, resulting in dense or sparse networks with constant optical transmittance. CNT surfaces can be further treated or coated in response to specific chemical or optical requirements. In summary, this high degree of tunability is becoming increasingly critical in applications where strict particle and impurity filtering requirements must be met with minimal optical disturbances.