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Process development

Intel says that it has reach two significant milestones in the development of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography (13.5nm).
Intel says that it has reach two significant milestones in the development of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography (13.5nm). The company has installed the world's first commercial EUV lithography tool and set up an EUV mask pilot line to move from research into the development phase. Intel is targeting EUV technology for high-volume manufacturing in 2009.

The EUV tool and mask pilot line will be able to print circuits with feature sizes as small as 30nm in preparation for the 15nm resolution that will be required when EUV lithography goes into production. Intel reports that the smallest feature sizes being printed today in its manufacturing facilities measures 50nm. Intel will use the micro exposure tool (MET) to address two key challenges.

The first is photoresist development. The second is to study the impact of imperfections on the mask. The MET will also allow Intel to focus on optimising the variables that are required for printing the tiny features required in a high-volume manufacturing setting. The company has made strategic investments in research and development and entered into joint development programmes with companies such as Cymer, Media Lario and NaWoTec.

A team of companies and universities has demonstrated a 152GHz static frequency divider circuit in a sub-micron scaled indium phosphide double heterojunction bipolar technology (InP DHBT) under the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded Technology for Frequency Agile Digitally Synthesized Transmitters (TFAST) programme.

Rockwell Scientific Company LLC (RSC), in collaboration with Global Communication Semiconductors (GCS), University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), IQE and the Mayo Clinic developed the circuit for mixed-signal applications such as analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue converters and direct digital synthesizers.

The InP DHBT transistors provide high electrical breakdown, low phase noise, and wide bandwidth for use in systems such as in-flight reprogrammable SATCOM links, in-combat programmable electronic warfare jammers, and millimetre-wave transmitters. Rockwell Scientific's team has been selected to continue the development of the InP DHBT technology under Phase II of the DARPA TFAST program.

Conventional InP HBT circuits are limited by relatively large transistor sizes, poor fabrication processes, and low-levels of integration. The TFAST team designed sub-micron scaled InP HBTs to overcome these limitations.

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