SAN DIEGO, June 9 -- Cymer Inc. has shipped its first ELX-6500F2 fluorine laser to Ultratech Stepper Inc. The laser was delivered to Ultratech Stepper's facility in Wilmington, Mass., and then integrated within the company's microstepper lithography tool, the XLS 157. Shipments of the microstepper were then sent to a major Japanese semiconductor consortium for use in leading-edge resist and materials characterization. Cymer said the fluorine (F2) laser enables the extension of optical lithography for devices with feature sizes below 100 nm (0.10 µm).
As integrated circuits continue to shrink, the ability of semiconductor manufacturers to image the circuitry associated with devices becomes increasingly critical, said Pascal Didier, Cymer's president and COO. Cymer's lithography lightsources are the key to both enabling the ongoing shrink of the devices, and to chipmakers maintaining their competitive edge.