Key sustainability opportunities have been executed in support of corporate initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint and decrease the running cost of DUV light sources. Previously, substantial neon savings were demonstrated over several years through optimized gas management technologies. Beyond this work, Cymer is developing the XLGR 100, a self-contained neon recycling system, to enable minimal gas consumption. The high efficiency results of the XLGR 100 in a production factory are validated in this paper.
Cymer has also developed new light source modules with 33% longer life in an effort to reduce raw and associated resource consumption. In addition, a progress report is included regarding the improvements developed to reduce light source energy consumption.
Cymer continues to address several areas of sustainability within the semiconductor industry by reducing or eliminating consumption of power and specific types of gas (i.e. neon, helium) required by DUV light sources in order to function. Additionally, Cymer introduced a new recycling technology to reduce the dependence on production of raw gases. In this paper, those initiatives that reduce the operational cost, environmental footprint, and business continuity risk will be discussed.
Cymer has increased the efficiency of its light sources through improvements that have resulted in energy output increase while maintaining the same or requiring less power consumption. For both KrF and ArF systems, there have been component [1], system, and architecture improvements [2] that allowed customers to increase energy efficiency and productivity. An example of module improvements is the latest MO chamber that helped reduce power consumption by ~15%. Future improvements aim to continue reducing the power consumption and cost of operation of the install base and new systems.
The neon supply crisis in 2015 triggered an intensive effort by the lithography light source suppliers to find ways to minimize the use of neon, a main consumable of the light source used in DUV photolithography. Cymer delivered a multi-part support program to reduce natural resource usage, decrease overall cost of operation, and ensure that chipmaker’s business continuity risk is minimized. The methods used to minimize the use of neon for 248 nm and 193 nm photolithography that offered significant relief from supply constraints and reduction of business continuity risk for chipmakers were described in previous work [3]. In this paper, results from the program will be presented.
In addition, techniques to capture the neon effluent and re-purify it within the semiconductor fabs have been pursued. For example, Cymer has developed and validated a neon recycling system for ArF light sources that resides within the chipmaker’s fab. Cymer has partnered with a global gas supplier to develop a system capable of capturing, recycling and delivering <90% of the total neon gas required by multiple ArF light sources through automated operation, including online analysis. In this paper, the neon recycle system performance as demonstrated by a quantitative analysis of facility-supplied gas versus the recycled neon in ArF light source performance will be discussed.
Similarly, DUV light sources have historically used helium as a purge gas in the critical line narrowing module (LNM) to achieve stable wavelength and bandwidth control. Helium has a low coefficient of index of refraction change vs. temperature relative to nitrogen and provides efficient cooling and purging of critical optics in the LNM. Previous work demonstrated how helium consumption can be reduced and still achieve stable performance under all operating conditions [1]. In this paper, results of eliminating the use of helium will be described.
Chipmakers continued pressure to drive down costs while increasing utilization requires development in all areas. Cymer’s commitment to meeting customer’s needs includes developing solutions that enable higher productivity as well as lowering cost of lightsource operation. Improvements in system power efficiency and predictability were deployed to chipmakers’ in 2014 with release of our latest Master Oscillating gas chamber. In addition, Cymer has committed to reduced gas usage, completing development in methods to reduce Helium gas usage while maintaining superior bandwidth and wavelength stability. The latest developments in lowering cost of operations are paired with our advanced ETC controller in Cymer’s XLR 700ix product.
The XLA 300 is Cymer's fourth-generation MOPA-based Argon Fluoride light source built on the production-proven XLA platform. The system is designed to support very high numerical aperture dioptric and catadioptric lens immersion lithography scanners targeted for volume production of semiconductor devices at the 45nm node and beyond. The light source delivers up to 90 W of power with ultra-line narrowed bandwidth as low as 0.12 pm FWHM and 0.25 pm 95% energy integral. The high output power is achieved by advancements in pulse power technology, which allow a 50% increase in repetition rate to 6 kHz. The increased repetition rate, along with pulse stretching, minimizes damage to the scanner system optics at this high power level. New developments in the laser optical systems maintain industry-leading performance for bandwidth stability and high level of polarization despite the increased thermal load generated at the higher repetition rate. The system also features state-of-the-art on-board E95% bandwidth metrology and improved bandwidth stability to provide enhanced CD control. The E95% metrology will move bandwidth monitoring from a quality safeguard flag to a tool that can be used for system feedback and optimization. The proven high power optics technology extends the lifetime of key laser optics modules including the line-narrowing module, and the cost of consumables (CoC) is further reduced by longer chamber lifetimes.
The first generation MOPA-based ArF laser XLA-100 was introduced in January 2003 in response to the needs of the high NA ArF scanners for higher power and narrower spectral bandwidth. The second generation product XLA-105 was introduced in early 2004. This paper presents our third generation MOPA-based ArF laser product XLA-200 that is designed and engineered to meet the light source requirements of the ArF immersion lithography. It is expected to be used for 65-nm and 45-nm volume production of semiconductor devices. The XLA-200 is capable of producing a 60W of ultra-line-narrowed 193nm light with the FWHM bandwidth of less than 0.15pm and the E95% integral bandwidth of less than 0.35pm. It features state-of-the-art on-board bandwidth metrology tool that measures E95% bandwidth as well as FWHM. Real-time accurate bandwidth information can be utilized for lithography exposure tool feedback control. The improved dual-chamber laser gas control ensures excellent bandwidth stability, which enables tighter CD control. Together with a lower cost of ooperation, the XLA-200 sets a new performance level for the dual chamber 193nm light source for microlithography.
Volume production immersion lithography scanners will require new light sources offering increased output power while delivering improved dose stability over a shorter exposure window. Scaling the light source repetition rate from 4 to 6 kHz is the logical step toward meeting those combined requirements. We will present the results of the latest progress towards developing a 193 nm, 6 kHz light-source using Cymer’s proprietary MOPA technology. We will discuss how the design of critical core technology elements, such as the discharge chamber, the solid-state-pulsed-power modules and opto-electronic detectors within the system are modified to handle the higher average power, thermal demands, and speed to support reliable operation up to 6kHz. The XLA platform, which is already used on three generations of 193 nm MOPA light source, allows seamless integration of these improved technology elements into a reliable, proven product platform. We will also report results of the characterization of the optical parameters critical to the lithography process, such as spectral bandwidth and its stability, energy stability and dose stability, up to 6 kHz.
Since the introduction of the XLA-100 in January 2003, we have built, tested, and shipped a large number of XLA-100 MOPA lasers to microlithography scanner manufacturers. Some systems have already been installed at chip fabrication lines. To ensure product design robustness, we have been performing a long-term system performance test of an XLA-100 laser at Cymer. In this paper, we will report optical performance of the XLA-100 we see during manufacturing final tests, and a summary of the long term testing.
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