Bob Akins, president and chief executive officer of San Diego-based Cymer Inc., said interest has come from all EUV quarters for their 13nm EUV light source.
"When you do develop an NGL, the first thing you need is a light source. Then you can develop optics, then you can develop resists," Akins said. "Our EUV light source technology doesn't use laser source technology at all. Our R&D is all laser experts, and when we looked at the proposed light source that used lasers for EUV, we quickly came to understand that a laser wouldn't do it.
"We are using a dense, plasma-focused light. In it, you magnetically squeeze a lithium vapor and then electrically heat that, it produces intense 13nm (pulsed power) emissions. You convert stored electrical energy into narrowband 13nm light," he said. Akins noted the reason behind the debate over calling EUV an extension to optical lithography. "Thirteen-nanometer, strictly speaking, is in the soft X-ray part of the spectrum," he said.
Akins is very confident with this source, and Cymer is evaluating with whom it will team. "It's a simple approach, and we think it has the robustness. We have not made any decision to join (EUV LLC); we are learning about that and have not made a decision.
"We presented (our source technology) in March," he explained, "and the response was almost overwhelming. So many people wanted to come see us that we had to put down an EUV visit moratorium. We had to go get our intellectual property issues taken care of first. Now we've done that, and we're exploring how we should best proceed."
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