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NA is numerical aperture and physically relates (by the uncertainty principle) to the attainable resolution of an imaging system. Resolution scales linearly wit
by formerly_proven 2y ago
NA is numerical aperture and physically relates (by the uncertainty principle) to the attainable resolution of an imaging system. Resolution scales linearly with NA and inversely linearly with wavelength. High NA EUV means EUV scanners with a higher NA so higher resolving power than the current generation. The "normal NA" for EUV is 0.33. High NA means 0.55. (These are EUV marketing terms; ArF immersion tools went to NA 1.35, but using 15x longer wavelengths).
The economic significance is that current leading edge processes have to use multiple patterning with normal NA machines to achieve the necessary resolution. Multiple patterning means multiple exposures with different masks on the same spot creating interference patterns. This halves / quarters etc. throughput and decreases yields (every exposure needs to be flawless).
High NA means you just need one exposure and mask (per layer).
- szundi 2y agoUntil they start to do multiple exposures with this high NA to achieve even more next year
- formerly_proven 2y agoYeah but then it's a bit the end of the road, since there are no workable refractive media for EUV, not even on paper, which categorically rules out higher NA optics, which was half the reason for why ArF was able to be used for about 20 years.
- bgnn 2y agoThat's the traditional course of action. As long as it's financially sound they will at least try it. At that point making smaller patterns might not be the biggest issue. Vias are becoming s bottleneck and proven to be hard to scale down. If we cannot fibd a new way to open vias reliably and with low resistence it will be bottleneck for scaling down.