"A Japanese university claims to have made major breakthroughs in EUV chip-making technology. Image: Twitter
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) has designed a
new type of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment that could significantly reduce the cost to produce 7nm and smaller semiconductors,
and thus revolutionize the chip manufacturing supply chain.
According to reports, the EUV equipment’s optical system is greatly simplified while power consumption is reduced by a factor of ten,
raising the prospect of much cheaper advanced chip-making machines.
If so, it could mark the end of ASML’s monopoly on EUV lithography,
which would have serious implications for semiconductor manufacturers, investors and governments."
On technicality:
"To paraphrase OIST, this is how it works: In traditional optical
systems such as cameras, telescopes and older lithography tools, the
aperture and lenses are symmetric to the central axis – i.e., arranged
in a straight line. This configuration enables high optical performance
with minimal aberrations, resulting in high-quality images.
However, this is not possible with extremely short-wave EUV light, which
is absorbed by most materials and cannot travel through transparent
lenses. For this reason, in EUV lithography systems, the light is
directed using crescent-shaped mirrors that reflect the rays in an
asymmetrical zigzag pattern.
This method “sacrifices important optical properties and reduces the
overall performance of the system,” according to OIST.
To eliminate this problem, Professor Shintake aligned two axis-symmetric mirrors in a straight line and used a total of only four mirrors instead
of ten.
Because highly absorbent EUV light weakens by 40% with each reflection,
only about 1% of the energy from the light source reaches the wafer when bounced off ten mirrors while more than 10% does when only four mirrors
are used.
This makes it possible to use a smaller EUV light source with only
one-tenth the power.
Over 20 years ago, Phil Ware, an American engineer working for Japan’s
Canon, told a technology seminar at the Semicon West industry exhibition
in San Francisco that the problem with EUV lithography was that its
power consumption was measured in “HDEs – Hoover Dam Equivalents.”
If Professor Shintake’s design works as intended, this problem may
finally be solved. “Like the egg of Columbus, [it] may seem impossible
at first glance, but once solved, it becomes very simple,” Shintake said about the problem of EUV power consumption."
https://asiatimes.com/2024/08/japan-on-edge-of-euv-lithography-chip-making-revolution/
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