APRIL 15--Research-and-development activities of the Jenoptik AG (Jena, Germany; www.jenoptik.com) and Lambda Physik AG (Goettingen, Germany; www.lambdaphysik.com) joint venture, XTREME technologies GmbH, will be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The purpose of this strategic research partnership is to develop light sources in the extreme-ultraviolet range (EUV) for future production of even more-efficient chip generations.
The BMBF has approved the funding for the joint project to research the basic principles of EUV lithography and to develop EUV light sources and the corresponding metrology. XTREME technologies, of which Jenoptik and Lambda Physik each hold a 50% share, will coordinate the European consortium for the development of EUV beam sources.
Jenoptik and Lambda Physik will invest more than 10 million euros in XTREME technologies during the first stage of the development project (until 2004). EUV light sources for the next generation and beyond of optical microlithography are being developed at the Jena and Goettingen locations. Starting in 2007, EUV technology is expected to enable feature sizes of less than 50 nm, which will lead to significantly faster and more-efficient microchips.
