Uzodinma Okoroanyanwu, AMD, USA; Remo Kirsch & Marcel Grundkowski, AMD Fab 36, Germany; Rene Wirtz & Wolfram Grundke, AMD Saxony LLC, Germany

ABSTRACT

The product pilot lines of the leading-edge IC fabs in the world today are fine tuning their immersion lithography processes for patterning devices at the 45nm technology node, in  preparation for high volume production in 2008. Within a relatively short time,  immersion lithography has made the transition from a mere research curiosity just three years ago to a technology that has shown significant and demonstrable device yield, and is now poised for large scale deployment across the 45nm node device product line. This is a remarkable achievement, which underscores the enormous progress made in the realm of defectivity and overlay control – the twin achilles heels of immersion lithography.