The Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography equipment designed and manufactured by ASML is some of the most sophisticated machines ever built by man. This Dutch company has invested more than two decades in its development, and first its engineers They believed that it was impossible for them to work. In 1997 everything changed. That year research department leader Jos Benschop reassessed whether EUV technology was a viable option.
After the first experiments it was realized that the German company Zeiss was capable of producing the extraordinarily sophisticated mirrors necessary to transmit ultraviolet light. And he wasn’t wrong. It was the real starting point of the technology that made possible such advanced integrated circuits for mobile phones, computers, and data center servers for artificial intelligence.
The raw material used by these machines to transport the geometric patterns that describe the structure of each chip from mask to wafer is light. But not just light. The wavelength of ultraviolet light is so short that it would be possible to use it to write ‘The Lord of the Rings’ in its entirety on the edge of a sheet of paper. It seems impossible, but it’s not: if they wanted to, ASML engineers could do it using their technology.
13.5 nm goes a long way
Choosing the wavelength of UVE light used by these machines was a very delicate decision. Initially, the engineers involved in its development had four possible options: 13.5 nm, 11.4 nm, 6.6 nm and 4.8 nm. These last two wavelengths were eventually discarded due to limitations imposed by organic photoresist materials. 11.4 nm light was also discarded because it required the use of beryllium in the mirror and is a toxic chemical material.
ASML engineers had four options on the table: 13.5nm, 11.4nm, 6.6nm and 4.8nm.
The 13.5 nm wavelength requires molybdenum and silicon to be introduced into the mirror, but these materials do not pose a problem. This is why UVE machines work with this light. In any case, this information is clearly reflected Exceptional level of accuracy What to make the mirror with: Zeiss uses argon ions and other elements to polish the mirror atomically, and then detects and corrects defects using a sub-nanometer analysis technique.
This latter tool is capable of detecting defects with sub-nanometer (less than a billionth of a meter) precision. UVE lithography machines used by TSMC, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron Technologies use 13.5 nm wavelength and high aperture equipment (High-NA) also use 13.5 nm UV light. The latter have more resolution because their optical system works with an aperture value of 0.55 compared to 0.33 for conventional UVE technology, but the light is the same.
According to ASML’s former CTO Martin van den Brink, its next-generation photolithography equipment, the Hyper-NA machines, will retain ultraviolet light at a wavelength of 13.5 nm. To increase resolution, they will rely on the same technique that ASML developed to move from EUV equipment to high-aperture EUV machines: Change the aperture value From 0.55 of the UVE machine High-NA in 0.75 inches Hyper-NA. Perhaps the first hyper-NA EUV lithography equipment will be ready in 2033, so everything indicates that 13.5 nm EUV light has a long way to go.
Picture | ASML
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