Chip Industry’s Technical Paper Roundup: October 17


New technical papers added to Semiconductor Engineering’s library this week. [table id=155 /] More Reading Technical Paper Library home » read more

Patterning With EUV Lithography Without Photoresists


A technical paper titled “Resistless EUV lithography: photon-induced oxide patterning on silicon” was published by researchers at Paul Scherrer Institute, University College London, ETH Zürich, and EPFL. Abstract: "In this work, we show the feasibility of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) patterning on an HF-treated Si(100) surface in the absence of a photoresist. EUV lithography is the leading ... » read more

Gearing Up For High-NA EUV


The semiconductor industry is moving full speed ahead to develop high-NA EUV, but bringing up this next generation lithography system and the associated infrastructure remains a monumental and expensive task. ASML has been developing its high-numerical aperture (high-NA) EUV lithography line for some time. Basically, high-NA EUV scanners are the follow-on to today’s EUV lithography systems... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: July 20


Interference EUV lithography ESOL has developed a standalone interference extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tool for use in R&D applications. The system, called EMiLE (EUV Micro-interference Lithography Equipment), is primary used to speed up the development of EUV photoresists and related wafer processes. The system is different than ASML’s EUV lithography scanners, which are ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Dec. 15


Ghost imaging quantum microscopes The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has begun building a quantum-enhanced X-ray microscope based on a technology called ghost imaging. Still in R&D, quantum X-ray microscopes promise to provide higher resolution images with less damage to a sample. Using the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), researcher... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Nov. 9


Open-source EUV resist metrology Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) has developed an open-source software technology for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) applications. The technology is targeted for EUV resist metrology. The technology, called SMILE (SEM-Measured Image Lines Estimator), is an open source software technology, which characterizes line and space patterns in a SEM. SMILE is used t... » read more

Improving EUV Process Efficiency


The semiconductor industry is rethinking the manufacturing flow for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography in an effort to improve the overall process and reduce waste in the fab. Vendors currently are developing new and potentially breakthrough fab materials and equipment. Those technologies are still in R&D and have yet to be proven. But if they work as planned, they could boost the flo... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: Sept. 24


Free flow electricity Researchers have made some new breakthroughs in the emerging field of Weyl fermions and semi-metals, a move that could one day enable free flow electricity in systems. In 2015, Princeton University and others finally proved a massless particle that had been theorized for 85 years--the Weyl fermion. A fermion is a subatomic particle. Proposed by the mathematician and... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: May 21


World’s loudest underwater sound A group of researchers hit tiny jets of water with a high-power X-ray laser, creating a record for the world’s loudest underwater sound. The intensity of the blast resulted in an underwater sound with an intensity greater than 270 decibels (dB). That’s greater than the intensity of a rocket launch or equivalent of creating electrical power for a city o... » read more

What’s Missing In EUV?


Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is expected to move into production at 7nm and/or 5nm, but as previously reported, there are some gaps in the arena. At one time, the power source was the big problem, but that appears to be solved in the near term. Now, a phenomenon called stochastic effects, or random variations, are the biggest challenge for EUV lithography. But at most events, th... » read more

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