High-NA EUV lithography is the anticipated new lithography technology to be introduced for the 2nm node. Essentially, it replaces the 0.33 numerical aperture of current EUV systems with a higher 0.55 numerical aperture (NA). This allows the projection of smaller spot sizes and smaller pitches, roughly 60% smaller compared … Read More
At SEMICON West I had a chance to catch up with Mike Lercel of ASML. In this article I am going to combine ASML presentation material from the SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference, Mike’s SEMICON presentation, my discussions with Mike at SEMICON and a few items from ASML’s recent earnings call.
ASML continues to improve DUV systems.… Read More
At the 2023 SPIE Advanced Lithography and Patterning conference, ASML presented an update on its EUV lithography systems in the field [1]. The EUV wafer exposure output was presented and is shown below in table form:
From this information, we can attempt to extract and assess the EUV wafer output per quarter. First, since there … Read More
Intel held a webinar today to discuss their IDM2.0 internal foundry model. On the call were Dave Zinsner Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Jason Grebe Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Corporate Planning Group.
On a humorous note, the person moderating the attendee questions sounded … Read More
The SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference was held in February. I recently had the opportunity to interview Steven Scheer, vice president of advanced patterning process and materials at imec and review selected papers that imec presented.
I asked Steve what the overarching message was at SPIE this year, he said readiness for … Read More
Masks have always been an essential part of the lithography process in the semiconductor industry. With the smallest printed features already being subwavelength for both DUV and EUV cases at the bleeding edge, mask patterns play a more crucial role than ever. Moreover, in the case of EUV lithography, throughput is a concern, … Read More
The “1.xnm” node on most roadmaps to indicate a 16-18 nm metal line pitch [1]. The center-to-center spacing may be expected to be as low as 22-26 nm (sqrt(2) times line pitch). The EXE series of EUV (13.5 nm wavelength) lithography systems from ASML feature a 0.55 “High” NA (numerical aperture), targeted… Read More
-Lam reported in line results on reduced expectations
-Guidance disappoints as memory decline continues
-Memory capex down 50% but still sees “further declines”
-Lam ties future to EUV maybe not good idea after ASML report
We always … Read More
-ASML weakness is evidence of deeper chip down cycle
-When ASML sneezes other chip equip makers catch a cold
-Will backlog last long enough? Will EUV demand hold up?
-“Unthinkable” event, litho cancelations, could shock industry
ASML reported Euro6.7B… Read More
Normalized image log-slope (NILS) is probably the single most essential metric for describing lithographic image quality. It is defined as the slope of the log of intensity, multiplied by the linewidth [1], NILS = d(log I)/dx * w = w/I dI/dx. Essentially, it gives the % change in width for a given % change in dose. This is particularly… Read More
