European Research Institute to Start Bringing in EUV Light Source Produced by USHIO

- Announcement made at SPIE -

USHIO Inc. is pleased to report an announcement made on March 3, 2011 (PST) at the SPIE Advanced Lithography 2011 international conference on lithography technology, which was held in San Jose, California, USA between February 27 and March 3, 2011. At this conference, XTREME technologies GmbH (headquartered in Aachen, Germany; President: Marc Corthout; “XTREME”), a 100% subsidiary of Ushio, Inc. (headquartered in Tokyo; President and CEO: Shiro Sugata; “USHIO”) announced that the DPP*1 EUV*2 light source for pre-production that the European Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (IMEC*3) in Belgium decided to adopt last year has now started being brought in on schedule.

It has been verified that XTREME’s DPP EUV light source for pre-production has achieved a performance of 60% uptime just one month after being connected to the exposure tool, and so the light source will be brought in to IMEC on schedule, with work for the installation at the same time. This demonstrates the reliability and stability of the EUV light sources manufactured by XTREME, and in the future the product is expected to contribute to process development as a light source for pre-production at IMEC.

USHIO has been developing EUV light sources since the 1990s, and has received research consignment and development grants from Japan’s NEDO*4 via EUVA*5 and Germany’s BMBF*6 to develop the EUV light sources required for the fabrication of 22 nm semiconductors and subsequent generations. USHIO actively advanced its research and development of EUV light sources by making XTREME a fully-owned subsidiary in 2008 and by acquiring the business of Philips EUV in 2010.

Many companies participating in IMEC are involved in semiconductor fabrication, including devices, masks, and resist-materials, and IMEC is already operating DPP  EUV light source for experimental tool. At the opening ceremony for XTREME’s new mass production factory that was held in last December, IMEC announced that it would introduce one of XTREME’s DPP light sources for pre-production in Spring 2011.
 
The light source that has now started being brought into IMEC is one of several orders that XTREME received last year. Looking ahead, Ushio will work through XTREME to further accelerate development to achieve the mass production of DPP EUV light sources.

*1DPP (Discharge Produced Plasma )
The DPP is a light source that emits Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) light from plasma generated by electrical discharge. Besides the DPP, the Laser Produced Plasma (LPP) light source is also available, from which EUV light is obtained from plasma generated by laser. Competition is underway in the development of two systems.

*2 EUV　(Extreme Ultraviolet）
EUV is referred to as the ultimate light source used in semiconductor lithography, following ArF excimer laser used in the current immersion double exposure. A feature of EUV light for semiconductor lithography is the extremely short wavelength, at 13.5 nm.

*3 IMEC(Interuniversity Microelectronics Center) IMEC is an independent international research institute in Europe, established in 1984. The head office is located at Leuven, Belgium.
http://www.imec.be/

*4 NEDO(New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization)
http://www.nedo.go.jp/

*5 EUVA(Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography System Development Association) EUVA was established in June 2002 under the R&D Partnership Act with the aim of promoting the rapid establishment of light source and exposure system technologies that utilize Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV), with collaboration among industry, educational institutes, and the government to achieve microfabrication in semiconductor manufacturing.

*6 BMBF(Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
http://www.bmbf.de/en

XTREME’s DPP method EUV　light source for preproduction on its way to IMEC

Reference

Brief history of EUV development by USHIO

2001 XTREME Technologies GmbH is established
2002 EUVA is established, with the participation of USHIO
2005 USHIO acquires 50% of the shares of XTREME
2006 Philips EUV ships alpha tools
2007 USHIO and XTREME ship alpha tools
2007 USHIO and Philips form a business alliance
2008 XTREME and Philips EUV begin joint research
2008 XTREME and Philips demonstrate 500W output from a point light-emitting source
2008 USHIO makes XTREME a 100% subsidiary
2010 EUVA achieves output of 1kW from a point light-emitting source
2010 Businesses acquired from Philips EUV

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