News Article
Corning Tropel develops immersion lens
Corning Tropel announced commercial availability of an immersion micro-objective lens, the AquaCAT. This new lens assembly is aimed at extending 193nm lithography capabilities. In a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) laboratory, site of the new product's first installation, an AquaCAT micro-objective recently yielded image resolution of less than 100nm.
Corning Tropel announced commercial availability of an immersion micro-objective lens, the AquaCAT. This new lens assembly is aimed at extending 193nm lithography capabilities. In a Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) laboratory, site of the new product's first installation, an AquaCAT micro-objective recently yielded image resolution of less than 100nm.
RIT is applying the AquaCAT micro-objective design in combination with an Exitech stepper to research and improve fluids used in immersion lithography. Exitech is based in the UK.
The AquaCAT is based on Corning Tropel's MicroCAT catadioptric micro-objective design, but applies immersion technology to increase the objective's numerical aperture and depth of focus for higher resolution. In immersion lithography, images are projected through a thin layer of highly purified water that lies between the micro-objective and the silicon wafer.
