A year in the life of an immersion lithography alpha tool at Albany NanoTech

Abstract

Immersion Lithography continues to get more and more attention as a possible solution for the 45nm technology node puzzle. In 2005, there has, indeed, been a lot of progress made. It has gone from a laboratory curiosity to being one of the industry's prime contenders for the lithography technology of choice for the 45nm node. Yet a lot of work remains to be done before it's fully implemented into production. Today, there are over a dozen full field immersion scanners in R&D and pilot lines all around the world. The first full field, pre-production Alpha version of the ASML Twinscan AT 1150i was delivered to Albany NanoTech in August, 2004. A consortium made up of AMD, IBM, Infineon, and Micron Technology began early evaluation of immersion technology and in December of 2004, the production of the world's first Power PC microprocessor using immersion lithography, processed on this tool, was announced by IBM. This paper will present a summary of some of the work that was done on this system over the past year. It will also provide an overview of Albany NanoTech, the facility, its capabilities, and the programs in place. Its operating model, which is heavily focused on cooperative joint ventures, is described. The immersion data presented is a review of the work done by AMD, IBM, Infineon Technologies, and Micron Technology, all members of the INVENT Lithography Consortium in place at Albany NanoTech. All the data was published and presented by the authors in much more detail at the 2005 International Symposium on Immersion Lithography, in Bruges, Belgium.