Wiz.. The more I read on those UT experiments, the more amazed I am that it was achieved at all... And I don't think they will be able to commercialize the work for a few years, so LSI will likely have to trek down the (known) path ... .25 micron... .18... .13. Meanwhile, I'm further amazed at how much of the pre-DUV stepper equipment will be in use for a long time yet...working those features that don't go much below .35 micron.. So ASML will likely be still selling mercury arc lamp equipment for quite some time yet.. but I would be betting on SVGI for the long term stepper growth.
But UT achieved their results despite the fact that there are no (commercial) light sources for the necessary wavelength, there are no steppers working with fine linewidths below .18 micron, even with the (R&D versions) of the Argon Fluoride eximer lasers..there are no photo resist materials able to deal with the problems with the weak power out of the lasers that output at the necessary wavelength...THEN, there are no photomasks which can provide the necessary phase shift at the ArF laser's wavelength to get the features into the chip.. The whole things is impossible, if you describe what is possible, even with extensions of available (optical ) methods... I stand in awe. And now, we assess for impact and invest accordingly, no?
The financials say we will see (DUV) optics in use for a long time yet, IMHO... TSO |
