SEMATECH, together with its subsidiary, the International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI), has selected ASML MaskTools to qualify the imaging performance of advanced logic patterns, metrology structures and defect designs for the 45nm through to the 22nm node. This will be done using ASML's TWINSCAN XT:1700i immersion scanner at the company's demo lab facility in Veldhoven, Netherlands.

"We are pleased to collaborate with ASML on determining the right lithography solutions for the 45-nm, 32-nm, and 22-nm technology nodes," said John Allgair, Litho Metrology program manager for International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative, SEMATECH's manufacturing-oriented subsidiary. "We are looking forward to reviewing the results from this project and making some key technology selection information available to our member companies."

The multi-year contract will enable SEMATECH and ISMI to test and develop advanced features for member companies planning to use advanced resolution enhancement techniques (RETs) on immersion lithography tools both in single and double patterning applications. ASML will supply advanced RET mask patterns for the SEMATECH design structures and deliver a fully qualified set of masks together with a set of validation wafers.

"We're proud that SEMATECH and ISMI chose ASML to participate in developing lithography solutions for advanced manufacturing," said Dinesh Bettadapur, president and CEO, ASML MaskTools. "As a company, we are committed to providing the semiconductor industry with a complete and tightly integrated solutions portfolio as exemplified by our leading edge immersion scanners, innovative mask technologies, and software products for scanner-mask optimization."