Gigaphoton doubles EUV light source output to 92W
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Japanese EUV researcher Gigaphoton has more than doubled the output of its light source in the last three months. In February, it announced that it had achieved an output of 43W at 100kHz at a conversion efficiency of 2.4%. Now, it says its laser produced plasma (LPP) light source has generated 92W at a conversion efficiency of 4.2%. Even so, the output remains much lower than would be needed for the tools to enter production.
"The achievement of the 92W output with our EUV light source is a fruit of the steady, yet unique, R&D efforts that we have made to achieve development of higher output, stable and lower cost of ownership LPP light sources," said Hitoshi Tomaru, Gigaphoton's president and CEO. "I believe that Gigaphoton's expertise and efforts to develop the LPP light source that accelerates development of EUV scanners for high volume manufacturing will further encourage the industry to introduce EUV scanners as the next generation lithography tools."
LPP technology relies on the creation of a very high temperature plasma by heating tin droplets with a high power laser. When the electrons in that plasma reassociate with the tin ions, they emit photons with the required wavelength of 13.5nm.
Gigaphoton says it remains committed to generating an output of 150W by the end of 2014 and then achieving 250W; at which point, the technology should be applicable in high volume manufacturing.
EUV has been seen as the way forward for the semiconductor industry, enabling production of devices at advanced technology nodes. However, manufacturers require a light source of at least 200W, which will support the production of 100 wafers per hour. However, that 200W light source will require a power supply of around 100kW.
