Sematech Researchers to Report Progress at EUVL Symposium
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 10/29/2007 9:51:00 AM
Sematech said its researchers will report on advances in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography at the 2007 International EUVL Symposium, being held in Sapporo, Japan, this week.
Michael Lercel, director of Sematech’s lithography program, said nine Sematech presentations will be given showing mask blank defect reduction, more efficient optical system designs, and effective reticle handling. The overriding focus is to show that EUV lithography is a manufacturable approach, which meets the consortium’s cost of ownership model, Lercel added.
The Sematech presentations include a report by Chan-Uk Jeon, program manager of the Mask Blank Development Center in Albany, N.Y., with mask blank defect density measured at 0.1 defects per cm2 at 56 nm resolution. Sematech has created a detailed database of the source of the defects and is developing mitigation methods, such as smoothing, to reduce pit defects. The smoothing process has achieved an 800× improvement in defect levels, enabling mask blanks to be ready for EUV beta tools in 2009, according to the consortium.
A second paper, by Andy Ma, EUV resist bench project manager, describes an effective resolution down to 24 nm with current resists under optimized illumination conditions. Ma also describes remaining resist challenges, including linewidth roughness
Michael Goldstein, a senior technologist, describes a series of improvements for the EUV collector optics. Current optical designs for EUV collectors are not very efficient, leading Sematech to develop upgrades that could boost collector efficiency by 2.8×, he said. The improvements would reduce the industry’s critical dependence on high-power sources, and improve tool throughput and cost-effectiveness.
“Sematech continues to move beyond theory and alpha concepts to deliver manufacturable EUV solutions for our member companies and the industry,” Lercel said. “We are leading EUV mask blank development with the world’s best defect inspection and characterization capability and multilayer deposition capability, and leading-edge imaging capability for EUV photoresists.”
The research work was done at Sematech’s facilities at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) in Albany, N.Y.
