June 27, 2011 — The semiconductor industry is facing major cost challenges in patterning advanced ICs in high volumes. A cost-effective solution remains elusive. In this article, we address the important issue of lithography cost-of-ownership.
We start with a cost analysis by Burn Lin of TSMC, published in 2009, followed by updates from the last two years. In his study, Lin projected the cost of lithography at the 22nm node, comparing optical, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and multiple electron beams (MEB) [1].
The table summarizes the major cost components to arrive at projected costs per layer, all normalized to single patterning (SP) with 193nm ArF immersion (193i) system.
As shown in Table 1, at a throughput of 100 wafers/hour (wph) and excluding costs of EUV masks, infrastructure and power usage, etc., EUV was projected to be comparable to MEB in cost goals.
| Cost-per-wafer comparison for three lithography technologies at advanced nodes [1]. DP=double-patterning; WPH=wafers/hour. |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All costs normalized to SP exposure cost/layer | Immersion SP | Immersion DP | EUV goal | EUV possibility | MEB goal | MEB possibility |
| Normalized exposure tool cost | 3628751 | 3628751 | 4535939 | 4535939 | 4535939 | 2721563 |
| Normalized track cost | 558269 | 558269 | 488486 | 209351 | 488486 | 488486 |
| Raw throughput | 180 | 100 | 100 | 20 | 100 | 100 |
| Normalized exposure cost/layer | 1.00 | 1.80 | 2.17 | 10.37 | 2.17 | 1.37 |
| Normalized consumable cost/layer | 0.91 | 2.27 | 1.43 | 1.43 | 1.05 | 1.05 |
| Normalized expsure + consumable cost/layer | 1.91 | 4.07 | 3.61 | 11.80 | 3.22 | 2.42 |
Update #1: EUV throughput and tool cost
In Lin