April 27, 2010 – The Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography System Development Association (EUVA) says it has surpassed 100W output at intermediate focus for an EUV light source, another big step to address a big hurdle facing EUV lithography as a production-viable candidate for next-generation semiconductor manufacturing.

Led by members Gigaphoton and Komatsu (Gigaphoton was formed in 2000 by JV parents Komatsu and Ushio), the mark of 104W power output at 2.5% conversion efficiency utilized a 7.9kW CO₂ laser radiated onto a 60μ-dia. Sn droplet target; magnetic fields were used for debris removal. To hike the power output to the ~180-200W expected to be required for full volume manufacturing will require further increasing the CO₂ laser output and improving the conversion efficiency. The EUVA says this laser-produced plasma (LPP) source should scale to >200W in-band power at intermediate focus, using a 20kW CO₂ laser.

In a statement, Gigaphoton president Yuji Watanabe said the company would start ramping operations this quarter in its facility toward initial volume production, with shipments of EUV light sources slated for sometime in 2011.

At this year’s SPIE, Cymer said its EUV source had topped 90W at raw output, though this was significantly reduced at the intermediate focus; its source roadmap, though, predicts 200W by 1H11 and 350-400W within two years.

The EUVA is also pursuing another EUV source alternative — work led by member XTREME in Germany has put together a discharge-produced plasma (DPP) source eyeing 115W at intermediate focus, with conversion efficiency of 3.5% (about 1.5× better than conventional values, the EUVA says).