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Technology Stocks : Silicon Valley Group
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To: Ritz who wrote (446)5/10/1997 12:58:00 AM
From: Nathan Brown   of 2946
 
I just got back from the electrochemical society meeting in Quebec Canada. I saw a presentation on the future lithography systems that are under current development. The presenter was from Sandia National Laboratories. He said that refractive optics can not go below 157 nm due to the energy bandgap of calcium fluoride, a whole new method will have to be devised.

Instead of refractive optics, reflective optics will have to be used instead. Reflective optics will also allow the 4X reduction common with refractive optics.

The new light source that they are proposing is laser excited plasma source. A gas (undisclosed to us) is allowed to expand in a nozzle to supersonic velocities. This causes the gas to focus to nearly a point (500 micron diameter). Then the gas is excited with a laser (undisclosed type). This excites a plasma which emits photons at 13 nm. The mirrors are made from 1/4 wavelength plates of alternating Mo and Si. This gives a reflectivity of approx. 67%. The reticles are made with focused ion beam technology.

With a numerical aperature of 0.01 the system can resolve 130 nm lines.

Some problems with this system include: photoresists are under development for this wavelength, the mirrors must be very, very smooth and without particle contaminants. The mirrors must be within 0.2 nm of design. This creates some problems, but after two years of working on the system they are within 1 nm of design. Increasing the NA of the system will allow resolution to much lower wavelengths ~down to 13 nm?

The speaker said that Sandia National Laboratories is working with a US supplier. At the beginning of the talk, the speaker mentioned SVGL as a top manufacturer.

Since Sandia National Laboratories is government sponsored, I would expect the benefits to go to a US company. Either SVGL or Ultratech would be the big gainers from this research and SVGL was mentioned.

Tell me what you think.

Nathan
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