News Article
EUV source power hits the 50watt mark
The semiconductor industry has made spectacular progress in boosting available source power for EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography – widely touted as the next major step forward in chip production – and should now focus its resources on other areas of this promising technology.
The semiconductor industry has made spectacular progress in boosting available source power for EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography – widely touted as the next major step forward in chip production – and should now focus its resources on other areas of this promising technology.
This was the message at a recent workshop sponsored by industry body Sematech.
Delegates were told that available source power for EUV lithography had been increased over the past year to almost half the level needed for commercial manufacturing.
In a speech at the workshop, Uwe Stamm of XTREME Technologies said the company had achieved an initial 400 watts of EUV power using a tin-based discharged produced plasma (DPP).
That would translate into 50watts once the energy had been collected through an exposure system. Manufacturing at commercial levels of 120 wafers an hour would require 115 watts.
Philips Extreme – the EUV arm of the European chip-making giant – has also managed to obtain collected power of around 50 watt using its own tin-based DPP system.
"This was achieved by 260 watts in the original power source," said a company spokesman. "The energy was more efficiently collected because of an optimal match to the optical system."
EUV light requires huge amounts of energy to produce and generating this energy without destroying the components that created it was regarded as one of the biggest challenges with EUV lithography.
But now, with the impressive progress made over the past year, it is recognised that that there are more pressing issues than power source, not least extending the lifespan of the devices that collect the EUV light.
Commercial manufacturing using EUV lithography is forecast to start in 2008.
This was the message at a recent workshop sponsored by industry body Sematech.
Delegates were told that available source power for EUV lithography had been increased over the past year to almost half the level needed for commercial manufacturing.
In a speech at the workshop, Uwe Stamm of XTREME Technologies said the company had achieved an initial 400 watts of EUV power using a tin-based discharged produced plasma (DPP).
That would translate into 50watts once the energy had been collected through an exposure system. Manufacturing at commercial levels of 120 wafers an hour would require 115 watts.
Philips Extreme – the EUV arm of the European chip-making giant – has also managed to obtain collected power of around 50 watt using its own tin-based DPP system.
"This was achieved by 260 watts in the original power source," said a company spokesman. "The energy was more efficiently collected because of an optimal match to the optical system."
EUV light requires huge amounts of energy to produce and generating this energy without destroying the components that created it was regarded as one of the biggest challenges with EUV lithography.
But now, with the impressive progress made over the past year, it is recognised that that there are more pressing issues than power source, not least extending the lifespan of the devices that collect the EUV light.
Commercial manufacturing using EUV lithography is forecast to start in 2008.
