EUVL HVM

The semiconductor industry is constantly striving to increase the performance of its products especially microprocessors and memory units (e.g. microchips). One way to achieve this is by shrinking the semiconductor device dimensions. Photolithography is used to print smaller patterns (as shown in the animation). The wavelength used to print smaller features is the key element to this aim.

Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) lithography is the front runner for the next generation lithography (NGL). A reliable EUV source with a compatible light collector at 13.5 nm is needed to enable 'nano printing'. The development of such a highly desired source is at the heart of worldwide research efforts. NANO-UV holds a breakthrough solution using the intrinsic Source Collector Module (i-SoCoMo™).

Breakthrough in the EUVL

Hydra OneEUV source development has focused on plasmas generated by laser (LPP) or discharge (DPP) pulses. In both LPP and DPP, the mirror responsible for collecting the light is directly exposed to the plasma and is therefore vulnerable to damage from the high-energy ions and other debris.

The important achievements of NANO-UV's scientists, engineers, and technologists are the combination source and collector components into one functional unit: intrinsic Source Collector Module (i-SoCoMo™). Typically 20 MW of electrical power is delivered into a plasma, which produces an intense burst of EUV photons. Concurrently, an intrinsic plasma structure is created to collect the photons and deliver them to the right point. This is the indestructible PlasmaLens™.

These breakthrough technologies have enormous positive implications for EUVL HVM and metrology industries:

  • High power and high brightness
  • Debris reduction (essentially, debris elimination)
  • Reliability
  • Process reproducibility
  • Low cost of ownership
  • Minimized downtime.
  • ... and practical multiplexing (read on)
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The multiplexing concept

Source power output is an important factor for EUVL HVM. Today however, the power output of commercially available sources is insufficient to provide what is needed by the semiconductor manufacturing industry. While our single source is much brighter than our competitive LPP and DPP, it does not have the overall power needed to expose the resist. However, the modularity and compact design of our i-SoCoMoTM units enables us to put many of these together, to get the right power output needed for HVM.

The sources are operated in parallel in a multiplexed fashion. This increases source uniformity by improving the effective repetition rate. This solution provides 120 W at the intermediate focus (IF) with a 100-unit multiplexed source, the HYDRA-100.

Hydra OneMore importantly, the strength of NANO-UV's multiplexed plasma source is its ability to operate even when one source fails, with only a small perturbation on the total output. This can be compensated by increasing the operating voltage of the remaining sources, unlike other single source designs the failure of which will bring the whole production to a halt. The HYDRA approach offers invaluable operational advantages.