TRW Delivers Laser For EUV Lithography

Next-generation computer chips took a step closer to reality recently as TRW Inc. (Redondo Beach, CA) delivered a extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solid state laser to Sandia National Laboratory (Livermore, CA) for integration into the EUV lithography engineering test bed. The light source will generate its EUV radiation from plasma created by the interaction of the laser with a xenon jet. The optics will capture the EUV radiation and direct it to where it is used to project circuit patterns on wafers of semiconductor material.

TRW is working with the EUV LLC and a consortium of US Department of Energy national laboratories known as the Virtual National Laboratory (VNL)—Sandia, Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (both of Livermore, CA)—to develop the new EUV light source.

TRW engineers are currently installing the new laser in an engineering test bed at Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore, CA. Over the next few months, TRW and the VNL will fine-tune the performance of the laser as part of integrating it into the first prototype light source. The VNL will also use the prototype light source to conduct tests of new chip lithography techniques. A full demonstration of the light source is expected by December 1999.

By early 2000, TRW expects to begin limited production of a "second generation light source that reflects cost, performance, and manufacturing requirements developed during the test program at Sandia. Manufacturers of photolithography systems are expected to begin integrating the EUV light source in test configurations by 2001.