Alternative lithography technology that is practical is a long way off. Consider all of the different pieces that must work together -- the radiation sources, photoresists, exposure tools, masks, etc. That's a lot of infrastructure that won't be ready for quite some time. See article below.
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted at 9 a.m. EST/6 a.m. PST, 11/6/97
Critical lithography decision only
the first step, says Sematech chief
By Jack Robertson
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- While industry experts assembled here to
debate and discuss the best candidates for next-generation lithography
systems, Sematech president Mark Melliar-Smith said a decision must be
made soon to allow semiconductor equipment suppliers to develop the
necessary production tools to support the technology.
"No matter what type of lithography system is ultimately selected, it
depends on the [industry] infrastructure to make it a reality,"
Melliar-Smith said in an interview with Semiconductor Busines News at
the Sematech Advanced Lithography Workshop, which continues here today.
The Austin, Tex.-based chip manufacturing consortium is hosting the
global summit to help narrow down the options for advanced lithography,
which will be needed when device features sizes shrink to 0.15 micron
and below early in the next decade. One hundred experts from lithography
suppliers, chip makers and research organizations are attending
closed-door sessions at the summit (see Nov. 5 news coverage).
The Sematech chieftain said that while most attention has been devoted
so far to radical new lithography processes, ultimately it takes support
from suppliers of photomasks, resists, inspection, metrology, and
exposure tools to create a commercially viable next-generation system
for chip production.
"The challenge is to be sure the infrastructure has adequate resources
to do the job," he added. "Each of the advanced lithography candidates
is now supported strongly by a large semiconductor manufacturer. I think
there's adequate resources to drive us to reaching an eventual selection
of a particular technology to use. There's less resources available in
the infrastructure."
Melliar-Smith warned that tool makers will be hard pressed to totally
foot the bill to develop equipment to implement whatever advanced
lithography technology is chosen. "At the same time the industry must
invest to develop the next advanced lithography system, companies are
also developing 300-mm wafers, copper metallization, 193-nanometer
wavelength deep UV, new dielectrics -- to name only a few," he said.
"There's a lot on everyone's platter right now," Melliar-Smith summed
up.
While Sematech would like to make progress in selecting candidates for
next-generation lithography development, it is unlikely that proponents
of competing technologies will be able to reach a consensus during this
week's summit (see related story from SBN's November monthly publication
). |
