In January, Gigaphoton Inc. (Head office: Oyama City, Tochigi Prefecture. President & CEO: Katsumi Uranaka), a major manufacturer of lithography light sources, announced the shipment of an ArF Excimer Laser for advanced immersion exposure (lithography) devices, the “GT65A” Unit 1, as a new product that meets the growing demand for semiconductors in recent years. The new technology of the GT65A significantly contributes to the rise in productivity of lithography equipment by providing stable operation of the laser and improvement of process margins.

The GT65A will also deliver a 50% reduction in service downtime. This key feature is realized by increasing chamber lifetime by 30% as well as improving maintenance efficiency through the utilization of extensive service data expertise acquired through many years of successful service execution.

In addition, the stabilization technology “eMPL Solid” and the control function “hMPL,” which form the spectrum control function, enable the improvement of CD uniformity as well as expanding process latitude.

Furthermore, the GT65A has successfully eliminated the need to use helium gas. Due to this, we are able to contribute to enhancing customers’ sustainability and CSR activities by not only reducing environmental impact, but also by greatly reducing risks associated with future helium gas supply deficits and price increases.

Katsumi Uranaka, President & CEO of Gigaphoton commented, “With the boom in recent years of the semiconductor market, improving the availability of lithography equipment is an important issue for each manufacturer. With the new technology in line with our new roadmap ‘RAM Enhancement,’ we have further strengthened and improved the Reliability, Availability and Maintainability of lithography light sources, contributing to the semiconductor manufacturing industry.”