TRW, Sandia Report Gains in High-Energy EUV Lithography

ST. CHARLES, Mo., March 14 -- Cutting Edge Optronics Inc., a division of TRW, and Sandia National Laboratories, a member of the Virtual National Laboratory, said they have successfully demonstrated the first lithography using a high-power laser-produced plasma extreme ultraviolet light source. The demonstration employed a TRW-designed laser-based light source on a system called the engineering test stand (ETS) developed by Sandia, Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light at 13.4 nm is an emerging photolithography technology for the semiconductor equipment industry.

The demonstration used a single 500-W laser focused on a liquid xenon spray jet target to produce EUV light. The power output of the laser-produced plasma is thirty times greater than that of the previous EUV source on the ETS and reduced the exposure time per field from 120 seconds to 4 seconds. This activity also demonstrated that exposures could be made in an acceptable environment for the lithography optics. The laser plasma source has operated outside the ETS with the full 1500-W output power of the TRW laser; lithography in the ETS at this full laser power is planned for second quarter 2002.