tag: lithography

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

You Nits – a different way to think about nano-lithography
By Michael Watts - 04 Jun, 2012 - Comments: 0

Once in a while, it is fun to go and listen to what the IC guys are up too…its jaw dropping stuff. The trouble with reeling off the capability in industry standard units is that it is impossible to put in any perspective. Units are important, or as my physics teacher used to say when we made a mistake “You nits”. Translation…in England a nitwit is a stupid person ! The 22 nm node ... » read more

If Computers Could Write
By Chris Mack - 04 Apr, 2012 - Comments: 0

I have many titles.  Gentleman scientist.  Consultant.  Husband.  Dad.  Some are self-applied (the advantage of being my own boss), and some are earned.  One that I am proud of, and take seriously, is the title of “writer”.  Writing well is not easy, and I have the somewhat old-fashioned idea that I should only write if I have something worthwhile to say.  So when I do write somethi... » 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

Lithography: How Slow Can We Go?
By Chris Mack - 23 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

Moore’s Law has always been about economics:  if we follow the trend of Moore’s Law, we can reduce the cost per function for our integrated circuits, making chips more powerful for the same cost, or making chips of a given capability cheaper.  Historically, cost per function has decreased by about 29% per year, corresponding to a factor of 2 decrease in cost every two years.  There are s... » read more

Advanced Semiconductor Device Lithography – pushing the optical limit for lithography
By Michael Watts - 11 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

Michael P. C. Watts Given that the alternatives all have challenges, it looks to me that optical lithography will have to deliver the 16 nm and most likely the 11 nm node. In my last blog, I reviewed the news from SPIE’s Advanced Lithography conference on all the non-optical solutions. My conclusion was that in the best case, EUV and imprint could just make the 11 nm node but both have out... » read more

Advanced Semiconductor Device Lithography – what is going to happen next ?
By Michael Watts - 07 Mar, 2012 - Comments: 0

by Michael P. C. Watts The noise and hype level around lithography these days is rather loud. At SPIE’s Advanced Lithography conference this year, a huge crowd heard all the different strategies and opinions. Is there any way to make sense of all the confusion? This is my view ! To start, I think it’s worth remembering what has to be accomplished. The goal is to manufacture sub 22 nm ... » read more

Directed Self Assembly – record breaking small features
By Michael Watts - 27 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

By Michael P.C. Watts Directed Self Assembly (DSA) was the breakout subject at this year’s SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference. This conference is the biggest annual get together for lithography nerds, and I use it to keep up with the latest academic and industrial trends. Anyone who is anyone seems to be evaluating DSA. On a personal note, as it turns out, I did my PhD in block copolymer... » read more

AL 2012 – Day 3
By Chris Mack - 16 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

I continue to focus on line-edge roughness in my own research.  This means that I attended papers in every conference in the symposium, since LER is an issue that cuts across all topics in lithography.  (To be truthful, I meant to go to a paper in the new etch conference that talked about LER, but never made it.)  LER is finally, in my opinion, getting the attention it deserves.  I believe,... » read more

AL 2012 – Day 1
By Chris Mack - 14 Feb, 2012 - Comments: 0

Attendance at this year’s Advanced Lithography Symposium is up 10% this year, to over 1500, though we still haven’t recovered from the huge drop in numbers that accompanied the economic collapse in 2009.  Still, the mood here is good.  When I ask people how they are doing the answer is almost universally the same:  busy.  And busy is what we will all be this week, trying to navigate the... » read more

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