SPIE's Advanced Lithography forum was a success in both quality of papers and numbers of attendees, the organisation says.
Attendance at the San Jose event was 2,230, with delegates hearing progress reports on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, directed self-assembly (DSA), metrology, and related topics.
'There was much discussion about the continuation of Moore's Law, both in terms of the technical ability to shrink as well as the cost,' said symposium chair Harry Levinson.
'Achievement of a significant milestone for EUV sources that should enable more rapid progress in EUV lithography was reported, as was the potential for a EUV pellicle – a welcomed prospect. And EUV extension to higher resolution, where we face many challenges, was the subject of many papers.'
Lithography light source provider Cymer announced that it had met 'key milestones' in recent tests of their EUV technology in an ASML lithography scanner.
David Brandt, Cymer's senior director of EUV marketing, reported new results for EUV power output as a light source for lithography, including a key announcement of 40 watts of EUV light in continuous operation using MOPA Prepulse technology.
'In addition to the good news of EUV source power achievements, there were first signs of considerations for EUV adoption in high volume, coming from infrastructure development such as EUV mask actinic inspection, EUV mask OPC, and EUV lithography integration in a full CMOS flow with yield-defectivity investigations,' said symposium co-chair Mircea Dusa.
