LONDON – Despite the economic calamity in Europe some governments still have good chunks of cash to back technology development.
The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is backing a project led by Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH (Oberkochen, Germany) to improve the optics inside extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. If the money is spent right and the project produces results it should help maintain Europe's lead in chip lithography.
Carl Zeiss optical systems are already used in the EUV lithography machines produced by ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven, The Netherlands).
BMBF is putting 7 million euro (about $8.5 million) towards a three-year project called ETIK to improve the optics inside EUV machines and help take resolution down to 14-nm and below.
The project will work on the illumination system and the projection optics. This includes mirror facets for an optical switching system and an inovative design for the surfaces of the reflection mirrors in the projection lens. Because the whole project is close to the limits of resolution work will need to be done in the fields of optical measurement, micro-cooling and precision engineering.
Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH is leading a team of six other German companies.
Cymer is the brightest of them all
Right now Cymer Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) is the leading supplier of a source for ASML EUV lithography systems. The company recently posted its 2Q12 financial results in which it made a net income of $9.6 million on sales revenue of $149.3 million compared to revenue of $158.2 million in the second quarter of 2011, and revenue of $150.5 million in the first quarter of 2012.
Sales and profits were all down slightly on sequential and year-on-year bases but that could turnaround when it starts shipping some very expensive sources for EUV machines.
The company said it is continuing with development and commercialization of EUV sources and demonstrated improved expose power performance and collector lifetimes and the viability of collector refurbishment.
Cymer’s EUV sources are now said to deliver a reliable 50 W output at a duty cycle of 40 percent. Not quite enough for ASML and its customers but the laboratory Cymer is said to have demonstrated 158 watt EUV source with a CO2 drive laser.
Cymer has begun integration and testing of its first source for the NXE:3300 EUV machine. As ASML has orders for 15 of the giant expensive machines it is Cymer's race to lose.