Enabling Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography
How do 50,000 tin droplets flying at 150 miles/hour create the world’s most advanced chips?
ASML San Diego is responsible for developing the EUV light source, the technology that enables extreme ultraviolet lithography for cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing.
At the heart of the process is a droplet generator. This system fires 50,000 liquid tin droplets per second. Each droplet is smaller than a fraction of a human hair, traveling at more than 241 km/h in a vacuum vessel.
Here’s how it works:
- Each tin droplet is individually imaged and targeted by two high-powered CO2 laser pulses, generating a plasma that emits EUV light.
- A highly polished, multilayered mirror collects and reflects the 13.5-nanometer EUV light to a precise exit point of the vessel directed at the scanner.
- This entire process relies on a veritable orchestra of lasers, cameras, and other sensors (collectively called “vessel metrology”) to create, optimize, and regulate stable plasma for EUV light generation.
About Access Laser
Access Laser Company is a trusted source for photonics solutions worldwide. For more than twenty years, Access Laser has provided research and industry with application-specific CO2 laser solutions for cutting-edge experiments and products.
Features of Access Laser products include:
- Pulse width modulation manipulates the source that drives the gain medium.
- Q-switching produces very short pulses with high energy.
- Acousto-optic modulation uses sound waves to diffract and shift the light frequency.
- Bandpass filters enable cost-effective wavelength discrimination.
- Isotope gas mixtures extend the spectral reach and power of the lasers.
- Piezo cavity modulation controls wavelength and power.
- Line tracking improves power stability.
- Stabilization monitors and compensates for temperature fluctuations.
- Super pulse discrete pulse trains deliver more power in less time.
- Enhanced linear polarization augments beam for polarization-dependent performance.
- Diffraction gratings guarantee selection of single-line emission across the spectral range.
- Dual drives provide flexibility to operate in continuous wave, pulse width modulation, or super pulse modes.
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.