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
It appears that immersion lithography is now the plan of record for manufacturing ICs at 14nm. How is it possible to use 193nm wavelength light at 14nm? How can we provide the process window to pattern the such tight pitches? The secret lies in computational lithography. For 20nm, the two key innovations in computational lithography… Read More
The industry plans to use 193nm light at the 20nm, 14nm, and 10nm nodes. Amazing, no? There is no magic wand; scientists have been hard at work developing computational lithography techniques that can pull one more rabbit out of the optical lithography hat.
Tortured metaphors aside, the goal for the post-tapeout flow is the same… Read More
