Background: The resolution capability of EUV lithography has reached parity with e-beam, raising the possibility that maskless EUV could supplant e-beam for mask writing and low-volume wafer patterning.
Aim: We outline a maskless EUV scanner design with a 13.5-nm operating wavelength and numerical aperture of 0.55.
Approach: A microlens array partitions radiation from a commercial laser-produced plasma EUV source into ∼2 million individual beams, which are focused to separate, diffraction-limited focal points on a writing surface, and the surface is raster-scanned across the focal point array as the beams are individually modulated by MEMS microshutters integrated within the microlens array to construct a digitally synthesized raster exposure image.
Results: Compared to state-of-the-art mask-projection EUV lithography, the system would have ∼1000 × lower throughput, but its power requirement would also be ∼1000 × lower, the exposure dose would be ∼10 × higher, scan velocity and acceleration would be ∼1000 × lower, and it would have the advantage of maskless operation. In comparison to e-beam mask writers, a maskless EUV scanner could provide higher resolution with at least double the throughput and over 10 × higher dose.
Conclusions: Maskless EUV lithography could provide significant cost and performance benefits for both direct-write applications and photomask production for mask-projection lithography.
EUV source power is critical for advanced lithography, for achieving economical throughput performance and also for minimizing stochastic patterning effects. Power conversion efficiency can be increased by recycling plasma-scattered laser radiation and other out-of-band radiation back to the plasma via retroreflective optics. Radiation both within and outside of the collector light path can potentially be recycled. For recycling within the collector path, the system uses a diffractive collection mirror that concomitantly filters all laser and out-of-band radiation out of the EUV output. In this paper we review the optical design concept for power recycling and present preliminary plasma-physics simulation results showing a potential gain of 60% in EUV conversion efficiency.
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