Companies collaborate on EUV lithography

The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany in Albany, NY and IMEC in Leuven, Belgium have announced plans to jointly perform extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) experiments in order to accelerate the introduction of EUVL into manufacturing.

The first set of collaborative experiments will be carried out at CNSE’s Albany NanoTech Complex, with future joint studies to be conducted at CNSE and IMEC, depending on throughput and/or availability of the tools.

This collaboration between CNSE and IMEC will also involve scientists from IBM and ASML, which has built a full-field EUVL R&D tool, the Alpha Demo Tool (ADT). The majority of activities will focus on the advanced imaging capabilities of the EUVL system, with additional effort devoted to the understanding of new materials and various aspects of equipment technology.

The collaboration is expected to further advance the learning on EUVL technology and the associated infrastructure required to support it. Ultimately, this alliance is intended to effectively demonstrate the practical feasibility of EUVL and build confidence in the technology for the 32 nm half pitch device node and below.