Lithography

• Lotus Dreams: EUVL Continues to Approach Readiness

  Vivek Bakshi, President, EUV Litho Inc., Austin, Texas, March 2, 2010
  As a follow-up to last week's SPIE Advanced Lithography conference in San Jose, Vivek Bakshi provides an update and his own perspective on the readiness of EUV lithography. He also offers insight into his confidence in ultimately winning a Lotus sports car from litho guru Chris Mack if EUV reaches high-volume production by 2014.  More

• TSMC Facing EUV, Wafer Cost Challenges

  David Lammers, News Editor, March 1, 2010
  TSMC is ramping capacity for 40 nm production and preparing early production for 28 nm wafers, Shang-yi Chiang, senior vice president of R&D, said at a customer event in Japan. Expressing "shock" at the cost of EUV lithography, Chiang said TSMC is working to find "all the possible ways we can control costs for the tools, and to go to 450 mm wafers soon."  More

• Maskmakers Struggle to Find the ROI on EUV Masks

  Aaron Hand, Editor-in-Chief, February 24, 2010
  Like others with a stake in EUV lithography development, maskmakers are being asked to contribute money to a Sematech effort to close the funding gap in mask inspection development. It's a tough question, however, given the low probability of a return on that investment anywhere in the near future.  More

• SPIE Plenary Session Looks to EUV's Future, Changes During Economic Recovery

  Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor, February 23, 2010
  Keynote speakers at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference said they expect 193i litho to be extended to the 16 nm generation and beyond. Kazuo Ushida, president of Nikon's Precision Equipment Co. expressed concerns over the cost of ownership of EUV lithography.  More

• Intel Sees Immersion Extending to 11 nm

  Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor, February 22, 2010
  Speakers at the Nikon LithoVision event said EUV litho's slow development makes it unlikely that it will be in full, high-volume manufacturing use before 2019. Meanwhile, immersion lithography continues to be extended into increasingly smaller nodes, with Intel now expecting to complement 193i with either EUVL or E-beam maskless lithography.  More

• Litho Cell Efficiency Enables Continuing Cost Reduction

  Franklin Kalk, Toppan Photomasks Inc., Round Rock, Texas, February 1, 2010
  At the leading edge of technology, feature size no longer solely drives performance scaling. Designs are increasingly complicated and their costs are rising because design automation is not keeping pace with the today's products' function requirements. Meanwhile, increasing litho cell efficiency continues to offer cost improvements.  More

• EUV Resists Designed for Low Acid Diffusion

  James W. Thackeray, Emad Aqad, Su Jin Kang and Kathleen Spear-Alfonso, Dow Electronic Materials, Semiconductor Technologies, Marlborough, Mass., February 1, 2010
  A novel polymer-bound PAG resist shows advantages over traditional PAG blend resists, achieving 24 nm resolution with an LWR of 3.8 nm and a photospeed of 11 mJ, as well as higher exposure latitude. Although still maturing, polymer-bound PAG-based resists may become quite useful at the 22 nm node and below.  More

• Affording the Future

  Aaron Hand, Editor-in-Chief, February 1, 2010
  Few people question, as we make our way into 2010, that this will be a better year for the semiconductor industry than last year. The uncertainties that linger, however, have more to do with the question: Will it be enough?  More

Next ›