CO2 Lasers Create Integrated Circuits for Mobile Phones
Did you know that CO2 lasers are used to create cutting-edge integrated circuits in your mobile phones?
Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) systems use a 30-kW, short pulse CO2 laser focused on a 30 µm liquid tin droplet, repeatedly 50,000 times per second, to produce 250 W of EUV light at a 13.5 nm wavelength. The EUV light is then collected, shaped, and guided by the world’s most precise mirrors onto a silicon wafer for subsequent etching or deposition. This enables a throughput of about 100 silicon wafers per hour, with about 600 Apple A15 (iPhone 13) chips on each wafer. Each chip contains 15 billion transistors, based on the 5-nm technology node.
Learn more about how ASML brought together expertise in CO2 lasers, laser-generated plasma (LPP) technology, optical components, and lithography to build “the machine that saved Moore’s Law.” Check out an article called, “Inside the machine that saved Moore’s Law.”
For more information on the physics behind CO2 laser-driven EUV generation, see for example Oscar Versolato’s review article entitled, “Physics of laser-driven tin plasma sources of EUV radiation for nanolithography.”
About Access Laser
For more than twenty years, Access Laser has provided research and industry with application-specific CO2 laser solutions for cutting-edge experiments and products.
Each Access Laser series offers different models with various options for power, stability, wavelength and more. Features of Access Lasers products include:
- Frequency-stabilized interferometric light sources
- High signal-to-noise ratio sources for spectroscopy
- Beams with long coherence-length and high spectral purity for plasma diagnostics
- Discrete wavelength selection for scanning near-field optical microscopy
- High-pulse modulation rates for free-space optical communications
- Industry-leading power stability for high performance optical fiber fabrication
- Single-line emission sources for optically pumping far infrared terahertz gas cells
- Ideal seed lasers for enabling master oscillator power amplifiers
- Superior mode quality for post-laser optical processing
Visit the Applications page on Access Laser’s website to learn about more exciting examples of CO2 laser applications.
To request more information or a quotation for Access Laser products, contact IL Photonics.