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Technology Stocks : ASML Holding NV -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (871)	11/13/2003 11:43:43 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 43499

Hyper-NA immersion scanner in development, says ASML By Peter Clarke Silicon Strategies 11/13/2003, 11:08 AM ET LONDON -- ASML Holding NV has converted a Twinscan AT:1150 193-nm wavelength lithography system to accommodate a water bath and allow immersion lithography, the company said at a financial analysts' lithography day held in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, Thursday (November 13, 2003). As part of efforts to commercialize the system ready for availability in 2004 the company is also working to upgrade lens systems to higher numerical aperture values, but has yet to formally commit to immersion lithography at any wavelength. Jos Benschop made a presentation on the topic of immersion lithography in which he listed a number of "second steps" as having been achieved since the second quarter of 2003. These included: the conversion of the 1150 lens system for use in immersion, conversion of the AT platform for liquid handling and full scan speed, and the demonstration of improved depth of field and equivalent resolution over 193 dry lithography at the 90-nm process technology node. Benschop also presented microphotographs showing the prototype wet scanner has achieved equivalent critical dimension uniformity to a dry a system at the same 90-nm process node and equivalent line and space density performance. However the Twinscan AT:1150 platform has a lens system with a relatively low numerical aperture of 0.75. The remaining work -- step three -- is to finally commercialize the prototype system, to improve existing lens systems to obtain higher numerical aperture values of 0.85 and greater than 0.90, to develop new lens systems for NA values greater than 1.0 which would make 193-nm immersion lithography an alternative to 157-nm 'dry' lithography at the 45-nm process node. Benschop confirmed in the presentation that ASML is finalizing the system design of a hyper-NA 193-nm immersion lithography scanner, although in a separate presentation it was shown that the company has still to formally take a decision on whether to deploy immersion at either the 193-nm or the 157-nm wavelength (see November 13 story). Benschop's and other presentations from the ASML financial analysts' meeting could be found here when this story was first posted.