Polcari Touts EUV at SPIE Photomask
Michael Polcari, president and CEO of Sematech, detailed the major challenges facing EUV lithography, in a speech at the SPIE Photomask symposium, going on this week in Monterey, Calif. "Regardless of all of the problems, EUV is inevitable," Polcari predicted.
Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor -- Semiconductor International, 9/16/2009
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Michael Polcari, president and CEO, Sematech |
The critical challenges facing EUV lithography will require much more collaborative work before EUV can provide pilot production runs, said Michael Polcari, Sematech's president and CEO, in an opening keynote address at the SPIE Photomask conference in Monterey, Calif., this week.
Obstacles remain in developing a dependable EUV source, a workable resist, and largely defect-free masks, Polcari said, presenting projections that as optical mask costs escalate beyond the 32 nm generation, EUV will become competitive with optical solutions.
While acknowledging that maskless electron-beam and nanoimprint lithography (NIL) have their proponents, Polcari said he considers EUV as the likely most cost-effective solution at 22 nm and below, adding that the Sematech EUV program is aiming to ensure EUV's readiness by 2013.
Sematech is focused on providing a high-volume manufacturing solution by 2013 at the 22 nm half-pitch, requiring pilot line operations by 2011. "There presently are five pre-production tools on order for 2010 delivery," Polcari said, "indicating a significant number of companies that believe in the technology."
The Sematech president detailed the existing roadblocks to the technology, including an EUV source with enough power to support high wafer throughputs. "Within six to nine months we will have a source that will provide enough power for pilot line operation, a significant achievement in terms of what has been accomplished over the last few years. However, there is still a far road to travel before getting to high-volume manufacturing."
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Source development is key to pilot production with EUV lithography. (Source: Cymer Inc.) |
Resist vendors must improve line-edge roughness (LER), perhaps with etching and trimming techniques. He said progress in resist development augers for a solution within two years. "Resists should have enough resolution at ~25 nm by the time pilot lines go into operation, and solutions are being worked on that should extend that to 22 nm," he said.
Progress also continues in control of mask defects, reticle protection and optics quality. Mask blank development is underway at national laboratories and universities, with the assistance of industry and other consortia that will give semiconductor companies several sources of EUV mask blanks.
There are two types of mask blank defects that must be dealt with: phase and amplitude defects. Fortunately, a large percentage of the phase defects will not print on the actual wafer — 10-30% of the defects print, allowing a level of flexibility on the masks. Today the industry is at ~1 defect/cm2, with the target for high-volume manufacturing at 0.01 defect/cm2, at ~18 nm defect size. "Still we're off by ~25× from the pilot line requirement, and about 100× from the high-volume manufacturing need," Polcari said, adding, "While this is by no means a done deal, we already have resources in place to address this."
Polcari said more flexible forms of metrology will be needed to help address the defect detection challenge. Mask inspection is an area that must be addressed; there is some limited capability for actinic inspection, but much is still being done optically. "There is an infrastructure problem today in the area of high-volume manufacturing tools," he said, including a need for third-generation actinic mask blank inspection tools, with no resources currently in place to address this fundamental problem. Work is underway on a consortium to share development costs for these needs and deliver these tools on time.
"Regardless of all of these problems, EUV is inevitable," Polcari predicted.
Broadening his focus to the issue of rising R&D costs, Polcari said the majority of the problems that the industry faces are common to everyone, which should lead to shared solutions. "Collaboration equals affordability. There are just too many challenges to solve individually; success depends on working with global industry partners to reduce costs and risks while fostering innovation and accelerating commercialization."
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Consortium research is a bit of a joke. In trying to find lowest common denominator thinking, hardly any impressive breakthroughs can be expected, despite occasional self-backpatting announcements.
no consortia please - 10/13/2009 12:19:03 PM CDT -
"Commercialization in 2009 remains the main goal for all the EUV community."
Paolo Gargini, 2nd EUVL Symposium Antwerp 2003 - 9/29/2009 4:51:03 AM CDT -
Paolo Gargini was quoted in 2003 as saying that commercialization of EUV would be the main goal in 2009. EUV has been pushed several years ahead each time a status update or forecast is given. That has been the only consistency.
histeric - 9/28/2009 11:33:10 PM CDT -
I agree with disgusted. When other technologies like nanoparticle resists struggle for funding, and EUV struggles for success, something is wrong in the way we parcel out funding.
disgusted 2 - 9/28/2009 4:32:54 AM CDT -
In this day and age, the amount of money squandered by EUV research over the years is criminal. A lot could have been predicted from basic physics without exaggerated experimentation with expensive, rare equipment.
disgusted - 9/16/2009 10:43:37 AM CDT
Michael Polcari, President and CEO, Sematech
07/01/2005
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