The Shape Of Things To Come


By Ed Sperling The standard method of designing chips—by shrinking features and turning up the clock frequency—is running out of steam for many companies. It’s too difficult, too expensive, and without a commercially viable new lithography source it may become even more unrealistic for most applications. That certainly doesn’t mean Moore’s Law is ending, but it could become more o... » read more

Inside Leti’s Litho Lab


By Mark LaPedus Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design sat down to discuss future lithography challenges with Serge Tedesco, lithography program manager at CEA-Leti; Laurent Pain, lithography lab manager at CEA-Leti; and Raluca Tiron, a senior scientist at CEA-Leti. SMD: CEA-Leti has two major and separate programs, including one in directed self-assembly (DSA) and another in multi-beam ... » read more

The Bumpy Road To 450mm


By Mark LaPedus After its formation nearly 20 months ago, a 450mm consortium has reached its latest milestone by recently completing a cleanroom and installing the first 450mm demonstration tools in the facility. The so-called Global 450 Consortium (G450C) also has set a goal to bring 450mm fabs into high-volume manufacturing at the 10nm or 7nm nodes by 2018. That gives the industry a littl... » read more

EUV Flare And Proximity Modeling And Model-Based Correction


The introduction of EUV lithography into the semiconductor fabrication process will enable a continuation of Moore’s law below the 22 nm technology node. EUV lithography will, however, introduce new and unwanted sources of patterning distortions which must be accurately modeled and corrected on the reticle. Flare caused by scattered light in the projection optics is expected to result in seve... » read more

Throw In The Kitchen Sink


By Ed Sperling The number of options available for reducing power and improving performance are increasing for the first time in a decade. This is good news for chipmakers. It’s far less clear who stands to benefit on the tools, IP, capital equipment and manufacturing side. Choice is always a good thing in design. It allows teams to trade off one IP block for another, based upon the needs... » read more

Reaching For The Reset Button In Lithography


By Mark LaPedus Amid ongoing delays and setbacks, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and multi-beam e-beam have both missed the 10nm logic node. So for the present, chipmakers must take the brute force route at 10nm by using 193nm immersion with multiple patterning. Now, it’s time to hit the reset button. For the 7nm node, chipmakers currently are lining up the lithographic competition... » read more

Making An Impression with Nanoimprint


By Mark LaPedus Semiconductor Manufacturing & Design sat down to discuss the trends in lithography with Mark Melliar-Smith, president and chief executive of Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII), a supplier of nanoimprint lithography tools. SMD: How do you view the IC industry now? Melliar-Smith: It’s truly incredible work that this industry continues to do. The industry will see its way f... » read more

Directed Self-Assembly Grows Up


By Mark LaPedus At last year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, Christopher Bencher, a member of the technical staff at Applied Materials, said the buzz surrounding directed self-assembly (DSA) technology resembled the fervor generated at the famous Woodstock rock concert in 1969. This was clearly evident from the tumultuous and free-flowing movement that threatened the status quo o... » read more

Breakthroughs Required


Linear progressions have a hypnotic effect on even the smartest people. They lull everyone into thinking that progress—or at least a progression—is a straight line, with little or no recognition that things are changing around the edges. The periphery is definitely changing, though. And over the next couple of process nodes, the semiconductor manufacturing industry either will have to fi... » read more

Cymer’s EUV Team Has An Exciting Few Months


By Michael P.C. Watts At SPIE Advanced Lithography, Cymer announced some serious progress in EUV source development, one of several highlights. The latest results provided 40W of power in runs over 8 hours that mimicked full productions conditions including dose control. As far as I can tell, 40w translates to around 30 - 300 mm wafers an hour. The Cymer source uses a CO2 laser with 3 ampli... » read more

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