SUN

SUN: Spectral Unraveling of EUV Lithography Light Sources

Title: Spectral Unraveling of EUV Lithography Light Sources (SUN) 
Executive units: Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) and XUV Optics, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology (University of Twente)
Project management:  Dr. Oscar Versolato (ARCNL) 
Researcher: M.Sc. Zoi Bouza (ARCNL)
Daily supervisor: Dr. Muharrem Bayraktar, XUV Optics/MESA+ (m.bayraktar@utwente.nl)
Industrial partners: ASML (Veldhoven), Cymer (San Diego)

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography is currently being introduced in high-volume manufacturing to produce the smallest, fastest and most energy efficient integrated circuits. These photolithography systems are powered by laser produced, hot and dense tin plasmas as their light sources. However, the understanding of the plasma emission characteristics is far from complete. This lack of insight impedes the optimization of both proof-of-principle and industrial EUV light sources in terms of their spectral radiance. It is the central objective of this project to obtain such insight by spectrally unraveling these light sources to obtain a more complete fundamental understanding of their operation and enabling their optimization.

The project partners University of Twente, ARCNL and ASML are joining their unique expertise for this important task. The activities for the Twente side entail developing spatial and spectral plasma diagnostic tools uniquely covering from EUV to NIR wavelengths benefitting from the XUV Group experience and infrastructure in MESA+ Nanolab. The developed diagnostic tools will be utilized to compare the very different nature of the light sources in ARCNL and industrial sites. This is expected to reveal further fundamental physics aspects of the plasma emission from these sources and the potential to further optimization of the brighter EUV light source of the future.