Carl Zeiss, ASML and FOM Rijnhuizen work together on multilayer optics for chip production
Collaboration encompasses the entire knowledge chain of new multilayer optics for chip production
Optics specialist Carl Zeiss, producer of lithographic equipment ASML and scientists from the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen have signed a contract for the new Industrial Partnership Programme CP3E:
Controlling Photon and Plasma induced Processes at EUV optical surfaces. The unique partnership between science and industry encompasses the entire knowledge chain, from fundamental research to actual application and will provide training places for young scientists in the laboratories of ASML and Rijnhuizen. The three partners will collaborate on the development of multilayer mirrors for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light for the purpose of high-volume chip production. These mirrors are an essential part of the new generation of equipment for the production of semiconductors.
The Industrial Partnership Programme CP3E further builds upon previous collaboration between Carl Zeiss, the FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, the ISAN Institute in Troitsk, and has a duration of five years. The aim of the research is to characterise and control the stability of special multilayer mirrors for extreme ultraviolet light. These mirrors form the heart of the new lithography machines that ASML produces. The machines use light with a wavelength of just 13.5 nanometers to print even smaller structures onto the chips than can currently be achieved with longer wavelengths. This new approach therefore increases the number of patterns that can be fitted on a single chip and increase the clock speed of computer processor chips.
The programme has a total budget of 11.3 million euro, of which the partners will contribute a part in cash and a part in kind, for example by making highly advanced and often expensive research facilities available. ASML will accommodate half of the researchers at its laboratories in Veldhoven where they will have access to state-of-the-art lithographic equipment.
Collaboration ISAN and MSU
The programme allows a strengthening of the collaboration with partners at the Institute for Plasma Spectroscopy ISAN, Troitsk, Russia, and the Moscow State University, parties with specialized know-how on plasma physics and chemistry and a well-established line of research on EUV plasmas and plasma-surface chemistry. Both ISAN and MSU join as partners in CP3E.
Training places for young researchers
The CP3E programme gives eight PhD researchers the opportunity to work at a world-class level on fundamental processes and practical applications for EUV optics. These young researchers will gain access to both the research facilities at ASML and the laboratories at Rijnhuizen, which together with the facilities of Carl Zeiss will form a unique research environment.
EUV – a new generation of computer chip production
Highly refined tools are needed to produce the increasingly smaller patterns of computer chips. Such patterns are printed on a silicon substrate with light of an increasingly shorter wavelength, as this improves the resolution. The next generation of lithographic equipment will use EUV light, with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers. That is 30 times smaller than the wavelength of visible light and makes it possible to produce chips with patterns that are only 22 nanometers in size (and below) – 1 nm is a millionth of a millimetre or just four silicon atoms in a row. The production of such fine structures is far beyond the capabilities of the current generation of lithographic equipment in which normal ultraviolet light is employed.
Multilayer mirrors establish world record for EUV reflection
Ordinary mirrors or lenses are not suitable for EUV light. The FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen has developed multilayer mirrors, stacks of hundred layers of alternating molybdenum and silicon, with which the world record for EUV reflection has been established. As these mirrors consist of layers just a few atoms thick, they can easily be damaged by the intense conditions inside a lithographic machine. The aim of the research in the CP3E programme is to develop new techniques to stabilise the multilayer mirrors in such an extreme environment.
Industrial Partnership Programmes
Industrial Partnership Programmes (IPPs) are research programmes from FOM aimed at fundamental research over a period of several years. The IPPs bring FOM staff into close contact with industrial researchers (industrial partners) in areas with good potential for innovation and challenging scientific questions. With this they bridge the gap between fundamental research and industrial research. The companies finance at least 50% of the research.
The FOM research group 'CP3E' that will start at ASML, is a particular type of IPP. FOM-researchers collaborate 'on location' closely with ASML-researchers. The FOM-group is scientifically linked to the research group of prof. Fred Bijkerk at Rijnhuizen. This is the second FOM research group located at a company and follows the FOM nanophotonics research group at Philips. For further information about the IPPs of FOM please visit www.fom.nl/ipp.
Information
For further information please contact:
Dr Pieter de Witte
Programme coordinator Industrial Partnership Programmes FOM, telephone +31 (0)30 600 12 17.
Prof. Fred Bijkerk
Head of Department, Nanolayer Surface and Interface Physics, FOM Institute for Plasma Physics Rijnhuizen, telephone +31 (0)30 609 67 49.
Markus Wiederspahn
Public Relations, Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH, telephone +49 73 64 20 21 94.
Lucas van Grinsven
Director Corporate Communications, ASML, telephone +31 (0)40 268 39 49.