A Team Led by Professor Han Jae-won Developed Technology Hundreds Times Faster For the first time in the world, Korean researchers developed the “plasmonic nano lithography with contact probe,” which is a promising technology for next generation nano lithography. The technique uses laser to record nano-sized patterns on the plate. On 29 December 2009, Professor Jae Won Hahn (Mechanical Engineering Dept.) announced that his group developed nano lithography technology that shows hundreds times faster speed compared with conventional near-field optical recording method. This development would be commercialized to practical system for many researchers involved in nano technology such as bio-chip, nano material, etc. The research is introduced as a “Research highlight” of the “Lithography-Technology focus” section in Nature Photonics (Jan 2010). The results of the research had previously been published in Optics Express (Oct 2009). The journal has the greatest impact in the field of optics published by the Optical Society of America. Even though Korean companies lead DRAM semiconductor and LCD manufacturing industry, the lithography system—one of the most important manufacturing tools—is entirely imported from Japan and Europe. The near-field optical lithography is a candidate for the next-generation nano lithography technology beyond 30nm node. However, commercialization of this technique is limited because of very slow scanning speed (tens of micrometer per second) and intrinsic characteristic of near-field optics. Prof. Hahn's group developed a high-speed lithography technology and overcame limitation of speed and technical problem of near-field recording by using of lubrication layer made of SAM (self-assembled monolayer) between an optical probe and recording layer. This work is supported by the Development Program of Nano Process Equipments of the Korea Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The development of technology opens the way of high throughput plasmonic lithography system that uses optical probe array, and the system could be adopted for the semiconductor industry in the future. The single probe based lithography system could be commercialized for researchers involved in nanotechnology such as bio-chip and nano material, etc. Prof. Hahn stated that "the results of research may contribute to the technological independence of manufacturing tools for semiconductor industry by acquiring original technology of the next-generation lithography." The group has researched “Plasmonic nano lithography technology” from 2004, and possesses many domestic and international patents (US - registered: 1, pending: 4, Domestic - registered: 6, pending: 3, PCT - 2)