This is driving me nuts. "X-ray" sounds like a scientific term, but it's used in different sense. The machine developed by SAL is a hard 1nm x-ray machine, using Synchotron-generated energy to etch from a 1x mask. Actually, it's not a "stepper" at all, since it uses a proximity mask. While the "x-ray" machine envisioned at JMAR, Cymer and EUV Ltd. is a real stepper, but doesn't use real x-rays, that is, it produces waves in 3nm range by doping a metal plate with an excimer laser. These 50 Angstrom range waves can be called ultraviolet light or x-rays, you pick it. But it is a real 5x stepper.
The 14 SAL machines, please understand, are in prototype or testing placement. This doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot in the bigger scheme of things, except that they are ahead of JMAR in time but behind in money.
Please, comments. |
