The twentieth century has witnessed an exceptional technological progress in consumer electronics that has utterly shaped modern societies and economies. This ICT evolution was mainly driven by the invention of the transistor and integrated circuits, with chemistry and materials science playing a pivotal role in manufacturing active devices with distinct and reliable properties that over the past 70 years have been following Moore's scaling trend. The need for continuing advancing the performance of devices and systems is thus driving research efforts in prototyping and demonstrating novel nano-scale concepts at extreme dimensions - towards the single nanometre scale. This is not only important both for commercially available CMOS technologies as well as "beyond-CMOS" technologies that promise to disrupt the current electronics landscape by delivering unprecedented computational at extreme low-power. At the same time, emerging techniques for deep-subwavelength optical imaging based upon AI-enabled analysis of diffracted/scattered light fields are also constrained by current nanoscale precision and accuracy with which training samples can be fabricated. Electron Beam Lithography has so far supported such developments in the deep-submicron regime by directly patterning resists with a focused beam of electrons. A high acceleration voltage can facilitate the writing of fine and more vertical (better defined) lines, minimise proximity issues, achieve a better pattern fidelity and allow for a wider dose optimisation window. Existing electron beam lithography (EBL) systems in the UK operate at voltages up to 100 kV and can in principle reach writing resolutions down to 5nm. This programme aims at procuring the world's highest acceleration voltage EBL system that can be flexible operated from 25 kV to 150 kV for writing efficiently and fast a wide range of feature sizes (sub-5nm) across large areas, sample substrates (up to 8") and resist thicknesses. This new capability will provide a unique platform (first one in the UK and Europe) for innovation via manufacturing a wide-range of beyond-CMOS devices and nanostructures at unprecedented scales. The knowledge gained with this new instrument will not only contribute to an in-depth understanding of nanodevice physics but also advance developments in disruptive ICT concepts across emerging memory, computing, plasmonics, photonics and sensory architectures. Hosting this unique capability within Southampton's nanofabrication suite brings unique opportunities for usage along other state-of-art tools, including an EPSRC funded DUV Stepper/Scanner, that will support industry compatible wafer scale processing that allows mimicking the manufacturing capability of EUV tools (costing in excess of 100M£) and are used for production at industrial foundries for advanced technological nodes (3, 5 and 7 nm). Finally, the tool will support a diverse, inclusive and collaborative research community, fostering interactions between academia and industry, and enabling innovative research projects and directions.

Metamaterials are artificial materials with characteristics beyond those found in nature and that enable on-demand control of energy, waves and information to realise game-changing product performance, energy efficiency and functionality. Designed with structure and inclusions on the atom-to-wavelength scale, they underpin exciting emerging trends across a range of markets, e.g., telecommunications, aerospace, medical, sensors, automotive radar, imaging, anti-counterfeiting, camouflage, vibration suppression and more. Numerous market research studies predict significant growth, for example, by 2030 the metamaterial device market is expected to reach a value of over $10bn [e.g., Lux Research 2019]. Conventional metamaterials have a response or functionality that is fixed at the time of manufacture. Furthermore, metamaterials often suffer from functionality only over a relatively narrow band of frequencies, whereas many of today's applications require multifunctionality and reconfigurability, while reducing size, weight power and cost. The topic of this proposal, tunable, reconfigurable and programmable metamaterials and active devices, offers the potential of dynamic functionality in order to respond to external stimuli, or change functionality in real-time to meet specific application requirements. In our "A-Meta" collaboration we exploit synergies between the expertise and facilities of the University of Exeter's Centre for Metamaterial Research and Innovation (CMRI) in the UK, and the National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Metamaterials (CfM) in the USA. Together, we focus on three novel methods for enabling metamaterial tunability: phase-change-metasurfaces in the optical regime; photoexcitation of semiconductors for the microwave and THz; and polymer-loaded locally resonant meta-atoms for phononics and elastic waves. Our long list of project partners (Airbus, BAE Systems, Ball Aerospace, Bodkin Design, British Telecommunications, Dstl, Metamaterial Technologies, M.Ventures (Merck), NASA, Oxford Instruments, Phoebus Optoelectronics, QinetiQ, Thales, Transense Technologies, and Wave Optics) demonstrates the timely and strategic importance of active metamaterials and associated devices. Their letters of support detail strong relevance to applications such as wireless communication, sensing, filtering, imaging, consumer electronics, autonomous vehicles, RF devices, efficient and fast computing, high performance mechanical structures, manufacturing processes, and underwater sound control.