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Immersion double patterning preferred choice at 32nm, says Cymer |
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Jan 31, 2007 at 07:06 PM |
 Cymer executives noted during a conference call to discuss quarterly financial performance that the view of lithography experts attending Cymer's Annual Lithography Symposium, held in December, 2006 was that double patterning (DP) with Immersion tools was the preferred solution at the 32nm node. This consensus is due to EUV Lithography technology not being production ready for this node migration in 2009 and the slow development of viable high index liquids that could see the retention of single pass patterning.
With the use of immersion lithography for double patterning the biggest concern of attendees was defectivity rates, according to Cymer. Attendees also noted that EUVL was still the preferred choice at the 22nm node as this would provide improved DOF margins and actually lower production costs compared to DP immersion. Engineers also feel confident that EUVL will be ready for production starting with the 22nm node. Cymer also reiterated that immersion tools had entered production at leading-edge NAND Flash fabs late last year and that the majority of immersion laser light sources being shipped are going to the NAND memory manufacturers in 2007. Cymer noted that the number of layers is also increasing with NAND scaling aggressively, fuelling a higher number of layers requiring DUV patterning. 
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