July 13, 2009 – Cymer says it has delivered the world’s first fully integrated laser produced plasma (LPP) EUV lithography source to ASML, to support integration and testing of next-gen EUV scanners. Cymer says the system achieves 75W of full-die exposure power, and will hit 100W “within the current quarter,” enabling 60 wafers/hr throughput for volume manufacturing.

In an LPP EUV lithography source, molten tin droplets are fired through a vacuum chamber and individually tracked and vaporized by a pulsed high power infrared laser, creating a high-temperature plasma point source which radiates 13.5nm wavelength light. A large mirror collects and directs this light into the scanner, where it is patterned by a photomask and projected onto a silicon wafer.

ASML is planning first shipments of its production-ready EUV tools (100 wafers/hr throughput) for “a year from now.” It claims to have orders for five EUV systems from memory and logic customers on three continents.