EUV Source Power Reported Up

MIYAZAKI, Japan, Nov. 19 -- Available source power for use in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography has increased significantly in the past year, reaching nearly half the level required for commercial manufacturing by 2009, according to participants in a workshop at the International Symposium on EUV Lithography, held here earlier this month.

Uwe Stamm of XTREME technologies GmbH said his company used tin-based, discharge-produced plasma (DPP) sources to generate an initial 400 watts of EUV power, estimating that 50 watts of this energy could be collected of use in an exposure system. This compares with a system requirement of 115 watts needed to expose 120 wafers per hour in high-volume manufacturing. Joseph Pankert of Philips Extreme reported about 50 watts of estimated collected power in his company's tin-based DPP system.

Representatives of suppliers Carl Zeiss and Media Lario said they are working to increase the lifetime of EUV light collectors, now identified as an issue more pressing than source power. In addition, Cymer Inc. revealed its selection of a laser-produced plasma source based on lithium as a likely candidate for EUV lithography (EUVL).

"This is very encouraging news for the potential use of EUV lithography in semiconductor manufacturing," said Vivek Bakshi, workshop chair and a member of the Sematech technical staff. "Until now, source power has been the number one challenge for EUVL implementation. This breakthrough now permits us to focus our resources on addressing other critical issues for EUVL."

Sematech conducts an EUV program aimed at developing mask blank technology and exposure processes using the mask blank development line and microstepper recently installed at Sematech North, located in the Albany NanoTech complex at the University at Albany College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. Sematech organizes EUV source workshops twice a year, which it says is part of its commitment to help develop EUV infrastructure -- including sources, metrology, optics contamination control and mask blanks -- to enable EUVL for semiconductor manufacturing by 2009.

For more information, visit: www.sematech.org