tag: EUV

Fallback Plans
By Ed Sperling - 26 Jun, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Ann Steffora Mutschler With EUV lithography missing a few deadlines already, the semiconductor industry has begun to search for alternatives. None of these solutions is simple, of course, and it’s questionable whether they’re even economically viable. And even if EUV is ready for mass production by 14nm, there are new challenges that have to be dealt with—particularly in the space... » read more

Fabless-Foundry Model Under Stress
By Ed Sperling - 26 Jun, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Mark LaPedus The semiconductor roadmap was once a smooth and straightforward path, but chipmakers face a bumpy and challenging ride as they migrate to the 20nm node and beyond. Among the challenges seen on the horizon are the advent of 3D stacking, 450mm fabs, new transistor architectures, multi-patterning, and the questionable availability of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. ... » read more

Bucket Lists
By Ed Sperling - 26 Jun, 2012 - Comments: 0

At 130nm, the introduction of copper interconnects, 300mm wafers and low-k dielectrics left the entire supply chain breathless. There had never been as many changes at a single process node in the history of semiconductors. At 28nm, the number of changes will pale compared to what’s necessary at 20nm, and that will pale to what’s required at 14nm. But unlike 130nm, when most of those cha... » read more

Aloha Lithography!
By Chris Mack - 10 Jun, 2012 - Comments: 0

An excuse to travel to Hawaii?  You don’t have to ask me twice.  Especially if it is the Big Island, my favorite of the Hawaiian isles.  My excuse this time?  The 3-beams conference, also called triple-beams, EIPBN, or occasionally (rarely) the International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology & Nanofabrication. The conference was held last week (May 29 – June ... » read more

The Hidden Costs Of Directed Self-Assembly
By Ed Sperling - 29 May, 2012 - Comments: 2

By Mark LaPedus Directed self-assembly (DSA) has been billed by some as a potential paradigm shift in semiconductor manufacturing, but it may not turn out to be quite the panacea its proponents suggest—or at least not yet. There are many questions surrounding DSA, an alternative lithography technology that makes use of block copolymers to enable fine pitches. Key among those questions ar... » read more

EUV glass still less than half full, but level is rising
By Katherine Derbyshire - 30 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

EUV first drew the semiconductor industry’s attention in the late 1990s, as lithographers began to consider the “post-optical” future. At that time, the future was expected to arrive with the 100-nm technology node, by 2004. ArF lithography turned out to be far more extensible than anticipated, though, and is still going strong fifteen years later. Which is fortunate given that, as we now... » read more

AL 2012 – Day 4
By Chris Mack - 14 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

As expected, the first EUV session of the last day of the conference filled a large room.  It was time to hear the status of EUV tool development, in particular the EUV sources.  ASML started things off with a rosy recounting of the successes of 2011.  After installing their sixth NXE:3100 preproduction tool, ASML bragged of the 5300 EUV wafers processed at customer sites by these six tools ... » read more

450mm and EUV Linked With Uncertainty
By Jonathan Davis - 13 Sep, 2011 - Comments: 0

By Jonathan Davis The transition to manufacturing semiconductors on larger wafers continues to be one of the hottest topics in the industry. Some chipmakers have committed to advancing the transition. Intel announced that its D1X fab in Oregon will be 450mm compatible (2013). TSMC announced a 450mm pilot line by 2013-2014. IMEC and ISMI have well-established programs focused on the challeng... » read more

For want of an o-ring, the mask was lost
By Katherine Derbyshire - 25 Jul, 2011 - Comments: 0

O-ring seals are everywhere in a typical semiconductor fab. Any piece of vacuum equipment uses several of them to seal the openings where components of the process chamber fit together. Yet, as ubiquitous as they are, most process engineers don’t think about them very much. They buy the seal specified by the equipment vendor, from the supplier with the most attractive price, and pretty much l... » read more

Race Intensifies To Develop EUV Source
By Ed Sperling - 02 Dec, 2010 - Comments: 0

By David Lammers The technology competition to supply the source of EUV radiation for the next-generation lithography tools has long been divided between the laser-produced plasma (LPP) approach, favored by Cymer (San Diego) and Gigaphoton (Oyama, Japan), and the discharge -produced plasma (DPP) method supported by Xtreme Technologies (Aachen, Germany). The competition is heating up, and it... » read more

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