LONDON– Specialist optics and metrology firm Zygo Corp. (Middlefield, Conn.) has beenawarded a $2 million order to produce advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) opticsfrom "a major semiconductor company."
Completionof order will take nearly two years and is likely to be for use in the developmentof EUV lithographic process technologies.
Theorder is associated a microexposure tool research project called MET-5 being conductedby Sematech at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) at theUniversity of Albany in New York State, Zygo said. The upgraded optics willhelp researchers achieve line widths of less than 16-nm in support of processdevelopment out to the year 2025, Zygo said.
Theorder is a follow on to a $9 million order given to Zygo by CNSE and Sematechto develop optics for MET-5 that was announced in October 2011. This is insupport of EUV resist and EUV mask developments. The development and productionof the EUV mirror system and for the follow on are both expected to take 22 monthsand both will be carried out by Zygo's extreme precision optics (EPO) operationin Richmond, California.
Itis not clear why the follow-on order has come from "a major semiconductorcompany" rather than through CNSE or Sematech. IBM, Intel, GlobalfoundriesSamsung, TSMC and Toshiba, are all working at CNSE. However Intel or TSMC arethe likeliest candidates to be the major semiconductor company to have orderedEUV optics from Zygo.
Intelis the world leader in terms of the miniaturization of manufacturing processesand is already down at 22-nm minimum geometries – which it makes using conventional optical lithography – while TSMC is known to have already taken deliveryof a pre-production EUV lithography machine from ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven,The Netherlands) and so may be accelerating its own EUV process development. However, IBM is a leader in the Common Platform Alliance that also includes Samsung and Globlfoundries.
"Tobe entrusted with this follow-on order for some of the finest EUV optics evermade is testimony to 20 years of accomplishment in this field," said MarcTricard, executive director of business development at Zygo, in a statement.
Related links and articles:
www.zygo.com
cnse.albany.edu
www.sematech.org
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