ICPST-42 (2025) PLENARY TALKS

EUV Lithography; past, present and future

Jos Benschop, ASML

 

 

Biography: Dr. Jos Benschop currently serves as Executive Vice President of ASML, the Netherlands. He  received the M.Sc. (cum laude) and Ph.D. degrees from the Physics Faculty, Twente University. His career in semiconductor technology began at Philips Research (Eindhoven, NL, and Sunnyvale, USA) from 1984 to 1997. In 1997, he joined ASML as Head of Research. Since then he has lead research for paving the way for the commercial semiconductor device production using EUV lithography. He is an SPIE Fellow and Fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering. He has been appointed by the Dutch King as an Advisor to the Dutch Government on Science, Technology and Innovation.

 

Abstract: Extreme UltraViolet (EUV) lithography has come a long way since the pioneering work in the mid 1980’s  in Japan[1], USA[2] and the Netherlands[3].

ASML started a program to select the “Next Generation Lithography” in 1997 with active participation on Electron Beam Projection Lithography, Ion Beam Projection Lithography as well as Extreme UltraViolet Lithography. The extendibility to smaller nodes was a decisive advantage for EUV and by 2001 ASML decided to focus on EUV.

By 2006 ASML shipped the first two full field scanners, the NA=0.25 EUV Alpha-demo tools [4]. These tools were instrumental to boost the learning on mask and resist, yet significant innovations in e.g. source power were needed.

Today EUV NA=0.33 is currently being used in volume production of logic as well as DRAM IC makers. The number of wafers produced with EUV has increased steeply over the last couple of years.

The latest step in the EUV technology has been the realization of an 0.55 numerical aperture EUV scanner which is fully integrated in the ASML-IMEC lab @ Veldhoven. Recently we printed full field, scanning, 8nm lines and spaces showing the imaging capability of this system.

ASML and Zeiss are currently exploring next steps in our EUV roadmap, a “hyper-NA” system with a numerical aperture larger than 0.7 which will extend the single patterning capabilities down to 5nm lines&spaces.

Needless to say, resist remains a critical enabler to extend the roadmap. Photon and chemical shotnoise determine minimum dose requirements, acid and electron diffusion impact the contrast. Further improvements on the resist are key to utilize current and future EUV scanners to their full potential.

 

[1] H. Kinoshita, T. Kaneko, H. Takei, N. Takeuchi, and S. Ishihara, “Study on x-ray reduction projection lithography,” presented at the 47th Autumn Meeting of the Japan Society of Applied Physics, Paper No. 28-ZF-15 (1986).

[2] A. M. Hawryluk and L. G. Seppala, “Soft x-ray projection lithography using an x-ray reduction camera,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 6, 2162–2166 (1988).

[3] F. Bijkerk, H.-J. Voorma, E. J. Puik, E. Louis, G. E. van Dorssen, M. J. van der Wiel, J. Verhoeven, E. W. J. M. van der Drift, J. Romijn, and B. A. C. Rousseeuw, “Design of an extended image field soft-x-ray projection system,” in OSA Proc. on Soft-X-Ray Projection Lithography 1991, Vol. 12, pp. 51–53 (1991).

[4] Noreen Harned, et al. “EUV lithography with the Alpha Demo Tools: status and challenges” SPIE Proceedings Volume 6517, Emerging Lithographic Technologies XI; 651706 (2007)

 

 

The other plenary speaker is to be announced soon