Technology breakthroughs have given Europe a lead in lithographic technology with Dutch firm ASML a year ahead in extreme ultra-violet (EUV) machines.
The company also sees a way to extend the reach of its current 193nm with immersion lithography tools to semiconductor geometries of 32nm and possibly smaller.
At the MEDEA+ 2005 Forum in Barcelona last week, it was stated that breakthroughs in increasing the source power for EUV machines have transformed the prospects for early adoption of the technology.
“Last year the source power was 2W, enough to throughput two wafers an hour,” ASML’s Anton Van Dijsseldonk, told Electronics Weekly, “now the source power is 20W which is enough for 20 wafers per hour.”
That has encouraged ASML to target 2009 for using EUV in full production. In 2009, the firm expects the market for EUV tools to be worth $1bn a year, supporting 18,000 high technology jobs in Europe.
In the first half of 2006, it will ship two full-field prototype tools, one to IMEC, the other to the US R&D cluster at Albany, New York. Closest rival Nikon is targeting 2007 for its first shipment of an EUV prototype tool to a customer.
Next year’s ASML EUV prototypes will be capable of 45nm processing. Competing with EUV will be the current 193nm immersion lithography tools which, according to ASML CEO Eric Meurice, should be capable of going down to 32nm processing, and may go lower.
“To get to 22nm using 193nm plus immersion would require the invention of a liquid with a refractive index greater than 1.6 [the index ratio of water] but no one has yet found this fluid,” said Meurice.
ASML reckons developing EUV will cost it $500m, but the price of a production tool in 2009 will be no more than that suggested by the historical price growth trend in lithographic tools which currently cost around $20m.
www.asml.com