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Adding Random Secondary Electron Generation to Photon Shot Noise: Compounding EUV Stochastic Edge Roughness

Adding Random Secondary Electron Generation to Photon Shot Noise: Compounding EUV Stochastic Edge Roughness
by Fred Chen on 04-26-2022 at 6:00 am

Compounding EUV Stochastic Edge Roughness 2

The list of possible stochastic patterning issues for EUV lithography keeps growing longer: CD variation, edge roughness, placement error, defects [1]. The origins of stochastic behavior are now well-known. For a given EUV photon flux into the resist, a limited fraction are absorbed. Since the absorption is less than 5% affected… Read More


Intel and the EUV Shortage

Intel and the EUV Shortage
by Scotten Jones on 04-13-2022 at 10:00 am

Slide1

In my “The EUV Divide and Intel Foundry Services” article available here, I discussed the looming EUV shortage. Two days ago, Intel announced their first EUV tool installed at their new Fab 34 in Ireland is a tool they moved from Oregon. This is another indication of the scarcity of EUV tools.

I have been tracking EUV system production… Read More


Can Intel Catch TSMC in 2025?

Can Intel Catch TSMC in 2025?
by Scotten Jones on 04-11-2022 at 6:00 am

Slide6

At the ISS conference held from April 4th through 6th I presented on who I thought would have the leading logic technology in 2025. The following is a write up of that presentation.

ISS was a virtual conference in 2021 and I presented on who currently had logic leadership and declared TSMC the clear leader. Following that conference,… Read More


EUV Resist Absorption Impact on Stochastic Defects

EUV Resist Absorption Impact on Stochastic Defects
by Fred Chen on 04-03-2022 at 10:00 am

EUV Resist Absorption Impact on Stochastic Defects 1

Stochastic defects continue to draw attention in the area of EUV lithography. It is now widely recognized that stochastic issues not only come from photon shot noise due to low (absorbed) EUV photon density, but also the resist material and process factors [1-4].

It stands to reason that resist absorption of EUV light, which is … Read More


Etch Pitch Doubling Requirement for Cut-Friendly Track Metal Layouts: Escaping Lithography Wavelength Dependence

Etch Pitch Doubling Requirement for Cut-Friendly Track Metal Layouts: Escaping Lithography Wavelength Dependence
by Fred Chen on 03-27-2022 at 6:00 am

Etch Pitch Doubling Requirement

The 5nm foundry node saw the arrival of 6-track standard cells with four narrow routing tracks between wide power/ground rails (Figure 1a), with minimum pitches of around 30 nm [1]. The routing tracks require cuts [2] with widths comparable to the minimum half-pitch, to enable the via connections to the next metal layer with the… Read More


The EUV Divide and Intel Foundry Services

The EUV Divide and Intel Foundry Services
by Scotten Jones on 03-23-2022 at 10:00 am

Intel IDM 2.0 Process Roadmap
The EUV Divide

I was recently updating an analysis I did last year that looked at EUV system supply and demand, while doing this I started thinking about Intel and their Fab portfolio.

If you look at Intel’s history as a microprocessor manufacturer, they are typically ramping up their newest process node (n), in volume production… Read More


Horizontal, Vertical, and Slanted Line Shadowing Across Slit in Low-NA and High-NA EUV Lithography Systems

Horizontal, Vertical, and Slanted Line Shadowing Across Slit in Low-NA and High-NA EUV Lithography Systems
by Fred Chen on 01-11-2022 at 6:00 am

EUV shadowing across slit

EUV lithography systems continue to be the source of much hope for continuing the pace of increasing device density on wafers per Moore’s Law. Recently, although EUV systems were originally supposed to help the industry avoid much multipatterning, it has not turned out to be the case [1,2]. The main surprise has been the

Read More

Pattern Shifts Induced by Dipole-Illuminated EUV Masks

Pattern Shifts Induced by Dipole-Illuminated EUV Masks
by Fred Chen on 12-19-2021 at 10:00 am

Pattern Shifts Induced by Dipole Illuminated EUV Masks

As EUV lithography is being targeted towards pitches of 30 nm or less, fundamental differences from conventional DUV lithography become more and more obvious. A big difference is in the mask use. Unlike other photolithography masks, EUV masks are absorber patterns on a reflective multilayer rather than a transparent substrate.… Read More


Revisiting EUV Lithography: Post-Blur Stochastic Distributions

Revisiting EUV Lithography: Post-Blur Stochastic Distributions
by Fred Chen on 11-14-2021 at 10:00 am

Revisiting EUV Lithography Post Blur Stochastic Distributions

In previous articles, I had looked at EUV stochastic behavior [1-2], primarily in terms of the low photon density resulting in shot noise, described by the Poisson distribution [3]. The role of blur to help combat the randomness of EUV photon absorption and secondary electron generation and migration was also recently considered… Read More


Losing Lithography: How the US Invented, then lost, a Critical Chipmaking Process

Losing Lithography: How the US Invented, then lost, a Critical Chipmaking Process
by Craig Addison on 10-31-2021 at 8:00 am

Lithography pioneers Perkin Elmer and Mann Co SEMI image

Lithography is arguably the most important step in semiconductor manufacturing. Today’s state-of-the-art EUV scanners are incredibly complex machines that cost as much as a new Boeing jetliner.

From humble beginnings in 1984 as a joint venture with Philips, ASML has grown to become the world’s second largest chip equipment… Read More