TOKYO ? Nikon Corp. said Wednesday (Jan. 14) it will begin full-scale development of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) systems in 2004 and will begin offering working tools by 2006. Mirrors are one of the big hurdles for EUV lithography systems,but a Nikon spokesman said the company has made progress on that front recently.
With the EUV development plan, Nikon has set its sights on next-generation lithography systems using a combination of ArF immersion and EUV. Nikon had already announced an aggressive development plan for 193-nm ArF immersion lithography, with shipments planned as early as 2005. Nikon intends to offer an ArF dry tool with high NA of 0.9, then an ArF immersion tool for the 45-nm node and, finally, EUV for 45-nm manufacturing and beyond.
In addition to ArF immersion and EUV, Nikon has also been developing EPL and F2 as part of its involvement in developing most future lithography systems.
Nikon said it shipped the first EPL tool for evaluation to Selete, Japan's 300-mm equipment research consortium, last June. F2 development has also been completed, the spokesman said. Nikon has asked customers whether they need EPL and F2. If Nikon does not receive orders for EPL or F2 by March, those lithography systems will be frozen, said the spokesman.
Nikon is a member of the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography System Development Association (EUVA), which was established in June 2002 in Japan by 10 companies under the auspices of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Nikon also established a new EUVL development department in January 2003 within its Precision Equipment Co. to focus on the development of practical EUVL technology for its customers.
Light source manufacturers Komatsu Ltd., Ushio Inc. and Gigaphoton Inc. are aggressively developing EUV light sources, but Nikon said it has not decided yet which light source it will use for its EUV tools.
Nikon intends to offer its first EUV tool in 2006 at about ¥5 billion yen ($47 million). The goal is to handle ten 300-mm wafers per hour, though volume production tools expected to be ready around 2010 will require 80 to 100 wafers per hour throughput.
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