EUV Lithography - Loser?

Written by Beth Martin January 11, 2010 Hits: 499 Favorites

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The January issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine spotlights their choices for technology winners and losers for 2009. Among the losers-- extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV), the much anticipated and very delayed technology that is supposed to push lithography past 22nm. Or, more specifically, French startup nanoUV, who claims to have solved one of the significant hurdles to making EUV commercially viable.

While EUV was used as far back as 1996 in demonstration projects [K. B. Nguyen et al., J. Vac. Sci. Tech. B 14, 4188 (1996)], it has been beset with problems that include lower-than-expected resolution, inspection troubles, contamination, and the weakness of the light source. But then, quietly throughout 2009, nanoUV (not the makers of the disinfectant wand, I assume) claimed to have a major advance in boosting the brightness of the EUV source. None of the electronics industry media picked up on this potentially game-changing technology. Is that because it's bogus, or because there isn't a forum for discussions about lithography (be it corporate media, blogs, etc)? Why, I wonder, did Spectrum call them out as a loser? Is it a ding on EUV in general (with poor nanoUV as an example), or a specific rebuke of nanoUV? Is the nanoUV technology bogus or brilliant? Discuss.

Read the Spectrum article here, then come back and tell me what you think.

In any case, are we tired of waiting for EUV? Will it be obsolete by the time it ripens? Will we just use double patterning, double exposure, or source-mask optimization while we perfect IC fabrication through molecular self-assembly or qubit wrangling?

And what will nanoUV reveal in their three poster presentations at the upcoming SPIE lithography show? I've been looking through the advance program, and will share interesting finds, particularly if they involve "magical" or "mysterious" solutions to one of the greatest challenges in lithography today.

Cheers!

Oh, one more thought. Does TechBites need a "Post Tapeout" community?

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Written by :

Beth Martin