制作EUV：从实验室到工厂

EUV的黎明

EUV故事始于1980年代中期日本，届时，基于70年代在俄罗斯进行的多层镜研究，Hiroo Kinoshita投影了第一张EUV图像。美国和荷兰的实验室很快也开始探索这一潜在的光刻发展发展。最初称为“软X射线”光刻，名称“极端紫外线”的灵感来自天文学家使用的术语，用于相同的光波长和光子能量。

在光刻中，使用较短的光波长使芯片制造商能够缩小大小并增加芯片上特征（或晶体管）的密度，从而使芯片更快，更强大。当ASML成立于1984年时，该行业正在使用汞蒸气灯，该灯产生了436纳米（NM）的光，称为G线，后来是365 nm的紫外线（UV）光，称为I-Line。早期的EUV研究人员追求了几个从4到40的波长，但最终以13.5定居为使用锡血浆产生EUV光的最佳位置。

EUV wasn’t the only technology that researchers explored to enable future generations of ‘shrink’. Electron beam lithography and ion beam lithography seemed to be other viable options, but ASML placed an ‘educated bet’ on EUV lithography, because it was the technology that seemed best suited to continue transistor scaling while remaining affordable in mass production.

Not everyone was immediately sold on the idea of EUV technology, however. At a2020 SPIE conference retrospective当时曾在NTT的研究员Hiroo Kinoshita描述了说服他的科学家认为EUV光刻有机会的挑战。他说：“ [我的结果]在1986年日本应用光学学会的年度会议上。”“不幸的是，观众对我的演讲非常持怀疑态度。但是，我的信念没有改变。”

劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室（Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory）的长期半导体行业资深人士和当时的研究员安德鲁·霍里卢克（Andrew Hawryluk）回忆起会议上的类似挫败感。他解释说，1987年12月，一位教授如何来拜访他和他的团队。在了解了他们在EUV中的开创性研究之后，教授问：“但是您真的可以对这些事情做任何有用的事情吗？”

“他的话困扰着我，”安德鲁说，安德鲁在圣诞节休息回家，两周后返回了30页的euv光刻。他和他的团队在当年晚些时候的一次会议上介绍了该论文，但即使那样，很难找到支持。安德鲁回忆说：“你无法想象我在演讲中得到的负面接待。”“观众中的每个人都会使我束缚。我的尾巴在两腿之间回家，誓言再也不会谈论EUV光刻了。”

但是一周后，安德鲁（Andrew）接到了贝尔实验室的威廉（比尔）布林克曼（Bill）布林克曼（Bill）布林克曼（Bell Brinkman）的电话，后者随后成功地让美国能源部在劳伦斯·利弗莫尔（Lawrence Livermore）和桑迪亚（Sandia）实验室为国家的EUV光刻研究计划提供资金the ‘Virtual National Laboratories’.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, Fred Bijkerk, a professor of EUV optics, projected the first EUV images in the Netherlands in 1990. It wasn’t until the late 1990s, however, that research into the industrialization of EUV lithography began in Europe. In 1997, ASML brought in Jos Benschop (senior vice president of Technology) to kick off our EUV program.

在乔斯的帮助下，1998年，ASML与我们的长期合作伙伴The Derman Partners The Derman Partners The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner The Derman Partner Shusturors Zeiss和Synchrotron Light Suilt Superion供应商Oxford Instruments成立了欧洲工业研发联盟（Extreme UV概念光刻开发系统）。ASML还与其他供应商合作，包括Philips Research和CFT，TNO-TPD，Fom-Rijnhuizen，PTB（德国国家计量学院）和Fraunhofer-IWS。ASML和Euclides于1999年与美国EUV LLC联手，而日本pursued EUV technology development通过其ASET计划（超级高级电子技术协会）和后来的日本极端紫外线光刻开发协会（EUVA）计划。

In 2000, Jos was able to present the EUCLIDES program’s first results at SPIE. Having seen what was possible, in 2001 ASML assigned a small group of people and modest resources to build a prototype EUV system.

The team achieved their goal in 2006, when the first EUV prototypes were shipped to imec in Belgium and SUNY (College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering) in Albany, New York. There, the prototypes were used to better understand EUV and how this new technology could fit into the semiconductor manufacturing process. Things were starting to get real.

他说：“我们于1997年开始从事这项工作。”“突然之间，是2010年，您正在海外飞往韩国。您乘坐长途出租车，换衣服，去工厂[工厂]，转弯，然后是：机器。那是一个很好的时刻。最初的梦想成为客户工厂的现实。”

这是一个很棒的时刻，但是仍然花了九年的时间才开始发布包含EUV技术的产品。万博manbetx官网登录乔斯解释说：“机器基础知识在那里，但是我们努力实现客户为使EUV成为负担得起的选择所需的生产力。”“It’s important to remember that the R&D phase at our customers also takes time,” says Jos. “After EUV’s ‘launch’, it still took one or two nodes for chipmakers to mature the technology and learn how to use it fully before commercial products could be built with it.”

万博manbetx官网登录一路上的技术挑战

“It took longer and was much more work than I imagined,” says Jos, looking back on the process. “You could say that we were either brilliant or just stubborn,” he laughs.

To make the jump to extreme ultraviolet light of 13.5 nm required innovations in practically all areas of the lithography machine, including the light source, the optics that shrink and focus the light onto the silicon wafer, and the reticle containing the blueprint of the chip to be printed. To make matters more complicated, EUV light is absorbed by almost everything, so it has to be produced and used inside a high vacuum environment. “The whole switch to vacuum was quite an adventure,” Jos recalls. “It made the materials a challenge due to outgassing – what materials you could use and how you had to handle them and clean them.”

乔斯解释说：“当Zeiss表明它可以使EUV光学元件成为专门的EUV光学时，我们的研究确实受到了关注。

下一步是什么？EUV 0.55（高NA）及以后

In our quest to enable ever-smaller chip features, we continue to innovate and are now increasing our EUV machines’ numerical aperture (NA) from 0.33 to 0.55, which means that the optics in the new systems will allow light with larger angles of incidence to hit the wafer, giving the system a higher resolution and decreasing the size of the features that can be printed. “Because this new lens is fundamentally different, it meant that we had to come up with a completely new way of manufacturing it and measuring its features,” explains Jos. “Our teams at ZEISS and in威尔顿打破了一个世界纪录。”计划在2023年底将EUV 0.55“ EXE”机器送给客户的研发目的，我们希望它们在2025年将在高量制造中使用。

但是在2022年，我们最大的挑战是每年将EUV系统的生产从40个系统增加到60个系统。EUV工厂副总裁Sheila Leenders表示，雇用更多的人并建造更多的洁净室空间只是问题的一部分 - 据我们EUV工厂副总裁Sheila Leenders称，困难的症结在于增加供应商网络的容量以满足EUV机器的需求。她说：“我们的供应基础正面临着一生的挑战。”“我们正在努力帮助他们提高能力并提高全球供应商需要的可靠性。”

通过合作克服挑战

多年来，ASML推动了许多挫折，意外的挑战和延误。但是乔斯说，每当他们看到新的挑战临近时，他们总是对如何解决问题有想法。乔斯说：“通过我们可信赖的合作伙伴网络，我们总是找到解决方法的方法。”

他继续说：“我们通过协作网络工作的方式是通过协作网万博manbetx官网登录络来工作。”“这使我们能够利用可用的知识并以'可接受'的风险状况进行进步。”

在EUV技术开发的所有阶段 - 研究，工业化和现在的大批制万博manbetx官网登录造业 - 在边界之间共同努力。Today, we procure some critical EUV modules from the US, such as the droplet generator for the light source as well as sensors, reticle handlers and stages, and other modules from Germany, such as our ZEISS optics and TRUMPF’s lasers for the EUV source, and we collaborate with companies and institutions all over the world in continued R&D for the next generation of EUV machines. Acting as the system architect at the center of things, ASML succeeded in building and mobilizing a global ecosystem to industrialize what many considered to be impossible technology. And we’re now confidently taking it into high-volume manufacturing.