DEVELOPMENTS AT NIST POC: Marcia Salkeld (301) 975-4188. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a number of new devices and methods involving a variety of technologies. In certain cases other parties have participated in the development of these technologies. Anyone interested in the further development of any of these technologies or in applying for a license to commercialize these technologies should send a written request for further information, referencing the NIST Docket Number and Title, to: Marcia Salkeld, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Technology Development and Small Business Program, Building 221, Room B256, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899; Telecopy: 301-869-2751. This is not an announcement of a contract action or a grant. NIST Docket Number: 94-031; Title: Friction and Wear Resistant Coatings for Titanium and Its Alloys; Description: This NIST invention is a method to control friction and wear of titantium and its alloys through the use of novel coatings. The coatings contain epoxide polymers with anti-wear fillers. NIST Docket Number: 95-009CIP; Title: Reference Substrates having Conducting Features Replicated in Single Crystal Films Formed on Insulating Material for Overlay - and Linewidth-Instrument Calibration and Method for Electrical Certification of Critical Dimensions; Description: This disclosure describes a method that addresses the adverse impact of feature-sidewall profile uncertainty on the availability of physical standards for CD - and overlay-metrology instruments. The new approach describes the replication, on reference substrates, of features with planar sidewalls of known inclinations and the use of electrical testing for certification. The commercial significance is that, for the first time, reference materials for both metrology applications may be mass-produced at relatively low cost and electrically certified by their manufacturer with traceability to NIST standards. NIST Docket Number: 95-012; Title: Improved Acrylic Polymer Matrix Composites; Description: The use of 10-methacryloxydecyltrimethoxysilane (MDTMS), a hydrophobic, long chain hydrocarbon bifunctional silane agent, results in acrylic polymer matrix composites with significantly higher filler loadings. Such composites have been shown to exhibit enhanced strength and durability. Because of the lower polymer content of these composites they are expected to exhibit reduced polymerization shrinkage and water sorption. Technology available for commercial use without a license. NIST Docket Number: 95-020; Title: Procedure for Estimating Tip Shape and Measuring Widths in Scanned probed Microscopes and Stylus Profilometers; Description: New NIST developed experimental and analytical procedures (the latter embodied in software) allow: 1) estimation of the tip or stylus geometry in scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy (STM and AFM) and stylus profiling; 2) correction of images for tip artifacts. Technology available for commercial use without a license. NIST Docket Number: 95-023D; Title: Methods and Electrolyte Compositions for Electrodepositing Chromium Coatings; Description: A NIST process deposits chromium plating up to 600 microns thick. The plating process uses non-toxic trivalent chromium to produce a plating three to four times harder after heating, than depositions using hexavalent chromium. NIST Docket Number: 95-0324CIP; Title: Overlay Target and Measurement Procedure to Enable Self-Correction for Wafer-Induced and Tool-Induced Shift by All-Imaging-Sensor Means; Description: The estimates of overlay extracted by a metrology instrument from standard targets on IC wafers are ordinarily burdened by difficult-to-estimate systematic errors called shifts. The first of two parts of this invention is the replacement of a standard overlay target used in normal IC fabrication practice with multiple instances of a so-called target unit. The referenced target units constitute a single so-called self-calibrating optical-overlay target structure. Each target unit is a standard target having an additional grouping of features called a null-detector subsystem. The null-detector subsystems embodied in the new self-calibrating optical-overlay target structure enable the extraction of zero-overlay indices. The second part of the invention includes modification to the metrology instrument's target scanning and imaging systems to provide supplementary inspection of the null-detector subsystems. The zero-overlay indices, when analyzed in conjunction with the burdened overlay estimates extracted from the corresponding multiple instances of the standard targets within the same self-calibrating optical-overlay target structure, enable an estimate of the shift affecting the overlay measurements. The unique novelty of providing self-calibration of the metrology instrument, with respect to shift, on the same substrate as that from which overlay estimates are sought by the user has significant commercial importance.

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