PFI-TT: Enhancing the Mass Production of Advanced Integrated Circuits

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation-Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project aims to develop new technology to bridge the knowledge gap in the generation of new high-power light sources that are required to increase the speed of mass production of the advanced integrated circuit (IC) chips. The high-volume manufacturing of ICs is one of the world’s most economically important industrial activities, enabling data communication, information technology, medical diagnostics, and transportation. The project will improve semiconductor lithography, the process of printing the circuit patterns onto silicon chips during production. This is the most critical and capital-intensive step in high-volume manufacturing of advanced ICs. The printing of smaller features to allow for more transistors per chip depends strongly on better light sources. Improvements in the efficiency and power of these light sources will improve the productivity and cost of lithography tools, reducing the fabrication cost of advanced ICs. The proposed project aims to improve the efficiency in the machines used in EUV lithography, a new projection lithography technique that uses dramatically shorter wavelength light. EUV lithography entered high volume manufacturing in 2019 after 3 decades of development. In advanced lithography machines, EUV light is produced by laser heating of liquid tin micro-droplets from which highly charged tin ions emit the EUV radiation at wavelengths near 13.5 nm. While the EUV light power presently achievable from laser-created plasmas is sufficient to initiate high volume manufacturing of a new generation of more powerful ICs, significantly higher EUV power is still required for high-throughput and cost-effective manufacturing. An increased understanding and control of the micro-droplet plasma evolution in EUV lithography sources can potentially increase their EUV conversion efficiency and average power. Taking advantage of previous work conducted at CSU, the plan is to demonstrate the technology and methodology to image the evolution of the tin targets plasmas using an EUV laser probe to benchmark models. The EUV probe can penetrate regions of the plasma inaccessible to visible laser probes and detect concentration of neutral atom invisible to visible light, gaining the understanding necessary to improve the printing of the most advanced semiconductor circuits. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.