Tribology symposium

One of the most critical challenges in high-end chip production is friction and wear. Two ARCNL research groups focus on understanding these processes: the Materials Theory and Modelling group and the Contact Dynamics group led by Emilia Olsson and Bart Weber, respectively.

Together with Stef Janssens from ASML these two groups took the initiative to organize the first ‘ARCNL Tribology challenges for nanolithography’ symposium at which leading experts in the field shared their latest results. The event took place on November 7th at ARCNL in Amsterdam.

One of the tribological challenges is that future chip production requires control over frictional slip at the atomic scale while there is little margin for surface wear. However, what controls macroscopic friction and wear at the atomic level remains elusive, hampering the ability to produce solutions.

Following the symposium, the ARCNL group leaders visited ASML together with the symposium speakers to discuss the topic with ASML counterparts.