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
The SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference is the semiconductor industries premier conference on lithography. The 2023 conference was held the week of February 27th and at the conference Applied Materials announced their Sculpta® pattern shaping tool. Last week I had an opportunity to interview Steven Sherman the Managing … Read More
-We attended the SPIE lithography Conference in San Jose
-No significant news or announcements on EUV
-Focus on 500WPM target and High & Hyper NA rollout
-AMAT overblown Sculpta-Not exactly what its cracked up to be
We have been attending SPIE for many years now and are happy to see a return to pre Covid levels… Read More
The many idiosyncrasies of EUV lithography affect the resolution that can actually be realized. One which still does not get as much attention as it should is the cross-slit pupil rotation [1-3]. This is a fundamental consequence of using rotational symmetry in ring-field optical systems to control aberrations in reflective… Read More
-US, Japan & Dutch agree to embargo some China chip equip
-Goes beyond just leading edge & will increase negative impact
-China might catch up in decades or invade Taiwan tomorrow
-Why the memory downturn could be longer than expected
It appears that the US has put together a coalition of the US, Japan and… Read More
