Extreme ultraviolet light source developed
APRIL 8--XTREME technologies GmbH (Goettingen / Jena, Germany), the nanotechnology joint venture of Lambda Physik AG (Goettingen, Germany;www.lambdaphysik.com) and Jenoptik AG (Jena, Germany; www.jenoptik.com), has shipped the first prototype of an extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light source. This light source will be used for future production of efficient chip generations. The customer is the British microstepper manufacturer Exitech, with whom the development for semiconductor use is being advanced under a strategic research partnership.
It is anticipated that EUV technology will be needed by the end of the decade for the production of the next, particularly more efficient, generation of computer chips. While 157-nm lasers are expected to be used starting in 2006/2007 and help produce feature sizes of under 50 nm, succeeding EUV technology is projected to generate even finer feature sizes of 30 nm and less.
Jenoptik AG and Lambda Physik AG each holds a 50% stake in XTREME technologies. The EUV light source uses a pulsed electrical high-power discharge and pinch effect to generate a 200-thousand-degree Celsius hot plasma, which emits the EUV beam.
"We have chosen an XTREME technologies source for the microstepper because it offers the most stable EUV light with the highest output power worldwide," explains Malcolm Gower, chairman of Exitech Ltd. (Oxford, UK;www.exitech.co.uk). "The EUV microstepper will be used in the initial test phase of the next generation of optical lithography. This test phase usually starts as early as three to five years before the actual use in chip production."