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PI Physik Instrumente - Revolution In Photonics Align LW LB 3/24

Plasma’s potential for photolithography pursued

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Work over the past decade to harness the energy-generating mechanism of the sun has yielded bright high-energy light needed to etch smaller microchips.

The microchip industry now uses 193-nm UV light, which cannot etch circuits any smaller than those currently being made. The future standard for making microchips, the industry has determined, is 13.5-nm light. Creating such extreme-UV light requires high-temperature, electrically charged gases called plasma, but scientists have struggled to generate enough power with existing extreme-UV light sources.

“Over the past decade, the primary issue with these extreme-UV light sources is they just can’t produce enough power,” said Uri Shumlak, a University of Washington (UW) professor of aeronautics and astronautics. “It’s a stumbling block for the whole semiconductor industry.”


A new inexpensive fusion reactor model uses currents flowing through material, rather than giant magnets, to control the million-degree plasma that generates high-energy extreme-UV light for applications such as lithography. The lab experiment includes a small system that measures plasma for electronics applications, attached to a larger tank containing plasma for energy research.


The bright high-energy light developed by Shumlak and a UW colleague is a solution to this decade-long roadblock. The scientists developed an inexpensive fusion reactor model that uses currents flowing through the material, rather than giant magnets, to control the million-degree plasma that generates the high-energy light. The technique produces stable, long-lived plasma.

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The researchers first conducted the experiment in 1999 and discovered a really bright light when they looked through the glass. They began to explore applications for this light and discovered a need in the microchip industry.

Existing technologies that are used to etch microchips produce sparks with a lifetime of 20 to 50 ns. The UW beam lasts 20 to 50 millionths of a second – about 1000 times longer. It also provides more control over the million-degree plasma that produces the light.


Four capacitors supply up to 10,000 V of energy to separate the xenon electrons from their nuclei, creating an electrically charged plasma that generates the high-energy light; the plasma created is stable and long-lived.


“That translates directly into more light output, more power depositing on the wafer, such that you can move it through in some reasonable amount of time,” Shumlak said.

The researchers demonstrated the method’s ability to generate 13.5-nm light with an initial grant from the university’s Center for Commercialization. They reduced the equipment from the size of a broomstick to the size of a pin that can generate a sharp beam, thanks in part to a Washington Research Foundation grant.

They have established a startup, Zplasma, to commercialize the technology for the next generation of microchip production.

Published: September 2012
Glossary
electronics
That branch of science involved in the study and utilization of the motion, emissions and behaviors of currents of electrical energy flowing through gases, vacuums, semiconductors and conductors, not to be confused with electrics, which deals primarily with the conduction of large currents of electricity through metals.
extreme ultraviolet
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) refers to a specific range of electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. EUV radiation has wavelengths between 10 and 124 nanometers, which corresponds to frequencies in the range of approximately 2.5 petahertz to 30 exahertz. This range is shorter in wavelength and higher in frequency compared to the far-ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet regions. Key points about EUV include: Source: EUV radiation is produced by extremely hot and energized...
nano
An SI prefix meaning one billionth (10-9). Nano can also be used to indicate the study of atoms, molecules and other structures and particles on the nanometer scale. Nano-optics (also referred to as nanophotonics), for example, is the study of how light and light-matter interactions behave on the nanometer scale. See nanophotonics.
photonics
The technology of generating and harnessing light and other forms of radiant energy whose quantum unit is the photon. The science includes light emission, transmission, deflection, amplification and detection by optical components and instruments, lasers and other light sources, fiber optics, electro-optical instrumentation, related hardware and electronics, and sophisticated systems. The range of applications of photonics extends from energy generation to detection to communications and...
plasma
A gas made up of electrons and ions.
AmericasCenter for CommercializationelectronicsenergyEUVextreme ultravioletfusion energyhigh-energy lightImagingindustrialmicrochip etchingmicrochipsnanophotonicsplasmaResearch & TechnologyTech PulseUniversity of WashingtonUri ShumlakWashingtonWashington Research FoundationZplasmaLasers

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