Patent Issued for Structure, Method of Manufacturing the Same, and Imaging Apparatus

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Life Science Weekly — According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Teshima, Takayuki (Yokohama, JP); Setomoto, Yutaka (Tokyo, JP), filed on February 13, 2012, was published online on July 1, 2014 (see also Canon Kabushiki Kaisha).
The assignee for this patent, patent number 8767914, is Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo, JP).
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present invention relates to a structure, a method of manufacturing the structure, an imaging apparatus including the structure.
“Diffraction gratings having a periodic structure are used in various apparatuses as dispersive elements. In recent years, structures having a periodic structure made of a metal having high X-ray absorption are used in industrial applications such as nondestructive testing, medical applications such as roentgenography, and the like. Nondestructive testing and roentgenography exploit differences in X-ray absorption between elements contained in objects or living organisms or between differences in density therebetween to produce contrast images and are referred to as an X-ray absorption contrast method.
“However, since light elements have extremely low X-ray absorption, it is difficult to image soft biological tissues or soft materials containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and the like.
“On the other hand, phase contrast methods using the phase difference between X-rays have been studied mainly in radiation facilities since the 1990s. Furthermore, phase imaging has been studied on a laboratory scale using X-ray tubes, thereby enabling a propagation method, a Talbot interference method, and the like in principle. In order to produce Talbot interference, a shield grating having a configuration in which X-ray permeable sections and X-ray shielding sections are periodically arranged is used. In the shield grating, the X-ray shielding sections include structures which are made of a metal, such as gold, having high X-ray absorption and which have a high aspect ratio (the aspect ratio is defined as the ratio (h/w) of the height or depth h to width w of each structure). A preferred method of manufacturing the shield grating is as follows: a mold is filled with a metal having high X-ray absorption by plating.
“Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-185728 discloses a method in which a recessed section is formed in a silicon substrate by reactive ion etching and gold is precipitated in the recessed section by plating. In this method, a silicon oxide layer (electrically insulating layer) is formed over the bottom and wall of the recessed section by introducing an oxygen gas into an inductively coupled plasma treatment system and a portion of the silicon oxide layer that is located on the bottom is etched off, whereby a portion of the silicon substrate is exposed. The exposed portion is used as a seed layer during electroplating and gold is precipitated on the exposed portion.
“However, a silicon oxide layer formed by introducing an oxygen gas into an inductively coupled plasma treatment system usually has a thickness of about 2 nm. Therefore, it is not necessarily easy for the silicon oxide layer, which serves as an insulating layer for electroplating, to keep sufficient insulation. In particular, in the case of forming a structure with a high aspect ratio, if a silicon oxide layer formed on a side wall thereof cannot keep sufficient insulation, voids (gaps) may possibly be formed because plating is precipitated on the side wall.”
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Aspects of the present invention provide a method of manufacturing a structure with a high aspect ratio, the method being capable of suppressing the formation of voids when a recessed section formed in silicon is filled with metal by plating.
“A method of manufacturing a structure includes a step of preparing a substrate including a silicon section, recessed sections formed by etching the silicon section, protruding sections formed by etching the silicon section, and a first insulating layer disposed on top portions of the protruding sections; a step of forming second insulating layers on sidewalls and bottom portions of the recessed sections; a step of forming seed layers containing metal above the bottom portions of the recessed sections having the second insulating layers thereon; and a step of forming plating layers in such a manner that the recessed sections having the seed layers are filled with metal by electroplating. The second insulating layers contain an organopolysiloxane having at least one of a partial structure represented by the following formula (1) and a partial structure represented by the following formula (2):
“##STR00002## where R.sup.1, R.sup.2, and R.sup.3 represent alkyl groups identical to or different from each other.
“Other aspects of the present invention will be clarified in embodiments below.
“Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.”
For more information, see this patent: Teshima, Takayuki; Setomoto, Yutaka. Structure, Method of Manufacturing the Same, and Imaging Apparatus. U.S. Patent Number 8767914, filed February 13, 2012, and published online on July 1, 2014. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=8767914.PN.&OS=PN/8767914RS=PN/8767914
Keywords for this news article include: Silicon, Canon Kabushiki Kaisha.
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