The eBeam Initiative, a forum dedicated to the education and promotion of new semiconductor manufacturing approaches based on electron beam (eBeam) technologies, today announced the completion of the second annual eBeam Initiative survey. Twenty-eight member companies from across the photomask supply chain participated in the survey. Participants provided their opinions on a variety of topics critical to advanced photomask production, including the implementation of multibeam mask writing, mask write times at the 10nm node, adoption of eight-inch and larger photomasks, the future of EUV lithography, and the adoption of general purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) solutions for simulation-intensive electronic design automation (EDA) applications. The complete results of the survey will be presented on September 10 during the eBeam Initiative’s annual members meeting at the SPIE Photomask Technology Conference in Monterey, Calif. Read More
The semiconductor industry is bringing to the fore new transistor architectures and new channel materials, along with the transition to EUV lithography (EUVL) and thin-wafer handling capability to enable 3D integration. The topic of new materials below 20nm, therefore, is prescient. MySemiconDailyTV asked Dr. Terry Brewer, founder, President & CEO of Brewer Science, to comment on the issues facing the industry in this Skype video interview:
Perhaps the more difficult topic to get updated now is that of EUV resists—that’s because this sector has reached the competitive stage in the industry as pilot line activity gets closer to reality. “The model of the resist and multilayer structures have come to a point where they are now executable into the early stages of manufacturing,” said Brewer. “It’s come a long way and the model is usable for a little while. There are still technical issues to solve and economic challenges, however.” Though many industry experts concede that directed self-assembly (DSA) will be used as a complement to EUVL, some can see a role for the technology aside from EUV.
Brewer Science presented a paper at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference on the topic of a multifunctional hard mask neutral layer for DSA and in his interview, Dr. Brewer noted that end users are very excited about DSA. “The technology and processes are moving along very quickly and it looks like it will be available as a complement to EUV, but also as a pathway on its own to achieve smaller and smaller lithography,” said Brewer. “I think what we’re seeing in general, even past DSA, is that the tool chest for materials is broadening very rapidly and can carry lithography down much further than it is now, with a particular tool set or with a variety of tool sets. I think we can accomplish the next several nodes utilizing that technology. It’s very exciting.”
Wrapping up the interview, Dr. Brewer covers the topic of thin wafer handling. He explained that for materials suppliers, the main challenge is that the process is continually evolving. “The customer is evolving it as they understand the needs better and the opportunities for the technology, and the equipment companies are evolving as they understand and better relate to the customer’s needs,” said Brewer. “And the materials suppliers—we’re kind of at the long end of the branch, so as the customer wiggles the branch a little bit, we see a lot of wiggle and change and a lot of movement from those requirements. So we are caught between uncertainty and chaos with a constantly moving target.” Brewer noted that development work is moving into more of the process technology needs, particularly for thin wafer handling where it’s gone from materials technology, to bonding technology, to the sophistication of process to handle thin wafers. “And that’s where we are right now, and at every stage, we have to give the customer an enabling or useful technology that will allow them to apply their development or products at that stage of improvement.”
The biggest challenge of all, however, will be providing solutions at a cost and throughput that matches the requirements of the industry. Finally, Dr. Brewer comments on progress at the company’s recently installed scaleup reactor at its Carbon Electronics Center to support expansion of electronics-grade carbon nanotube materials for CNT-based memory devices. Within the last year or so, customers have been moving from the testing regime to pilot production — hence the need for the new reactor. By about 3Q13, the company expects to be producing about 10x more volume than previously generated.
