Excimer laser is solid state.
So the light source, at least, seems to be several generations old. They seem to have more advanced methods other than the light source to compensate for that but it still seems to be way behind the current generation machines which use excimer lasers. Excimer lasers were originally developed in the 1970s and have been in use at least since the 1990s.
Lambda Physik originally developed excimer lasers based on gases using KrF (Krypton Fluoride), and ArF (Argon Fluoride). These are higher power and can generate lower wavelength light than mercury (Hg) lamps so they can produce finer features. This isn't even EUV technology, it's what has been used over more than two decades by now. Later Lambda Physik (a German company) got acquired by Coherent (a US company). So now I think only Gigaphoton which is Japanese is the only remaining non-US vendor for advanced light sources for photolitography.
There has been talk for decades of replacing excimer lasers with solid state light sources but it has never worked at high power levels, which is what you need to increase light exposure levels and thus decrease the time it takes to do each lithographic step.
Germany Carl Zeiss, heart of Dutch ASML Lithography Equipment.
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Excimer laser is solid state.
Infineon supplying mix signal chips for ventilator .
It also a strong supplier for automotive controls.
This is the weakness of Huawei and China in general , too much on digital chips. They start to do some analog for 5G filters and transceivers but overall leave alot of sectors untouched.
There's a bit over focus on the lithography.
If Huawei can't access 5nm and below , shouldn't they diversify into mixed signals chips which doesn't require latest tech.
It's 365nm from mercury lamp is not solid state and non monochromatic which also output wide range of light needed to be filtered. The lamp life is shorter than excimer laser life. To me, seems like they take the cheap way of light source. Excimer laser is better and solid state and harder to design.China is making progress of the lithography machine and reach 22nm level it won't belong before they reached 14 nm or even 10nm
Hu Song said that the lithography machine has a maximum linewidth resolution of 22 nm in a single exposure at a wavelength of 365 nm, which is equivalent to 1/17 wavelength. In principle, the project breaks through the resolution diffraction limit and establishes a new high-resolution, large-area nanolithography equipment research and development route. It has completely independent intellectual property rights
China created the first independent new lithography machine, which can make 10nm chips in the future.
Hu Song, deputy director of the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed that the newly accepted lithography machine has a processing capability between the deep ultraviolet and the extreme ultraviolet, and uses a 365 nm ultraviolet mercury lamp. Ten thousand yuan, and the price of the whole lithography machine is in the range of one million yuan to ten million yuan, "let many users overjoyed"...
On November 29th, Beijing time, the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced that the National Research and Development Equipment Development Project “Super Resolution Lithography Equipment Development” passed the acceptance test and became the world's first 22nm resolution lithography machine realized by ultraviolet light source.
According to China Science and Technology Daily, Hu Song, deputy director of the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed that the newly accepted lithography machine uses a 365 nm UV mercury lamp, a cost of only tens of thousands of dollars, while lithography The price of the whole machine is in the range of one million yuan to ten million yuan.
Hu Song also said that the processing capability of the lithography machine developed by the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is between the deep ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet levels, "to make many users overjoyed."
A new route, perfect to avoid foreign manufacturers' patents
The lithography machine is the core role of the integrated circuit manufacturing industry. The lithography machine is equivalent to a projector, and the fine line pattern is projected on the photosensitive plate, and the light is a carving knife. But the level of fineness of the line has a limit - not less than half the wavelength of light. "The light is too fat, the door is too narrow, and the light can't pass." Yang Yong, a scientist involved in the research, told reporters.
At present, a lithography machine using a deep ultraviolet light source is the mainstream, and the imaging resolution limit is 34 nm, and the resolution is further improved by using multiple exposure techniques and the like, which is expensive.
The lithography giant ASML of the Netherlands monopolized the cutting-edge integrated circuit lithography machine with a processing limit of 7 nm. ASML's EUV lithography machine uses a 13.5 nm EUV source that costs up to $30 million and is also used under vacuum.
In 2003, the Institute of Optoelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to study a new method: metal and non-metal film bonding, there will be disordered electrons at the interface; light illuminates the metal film, causing these electrons to vibrate in an orderly manner, producing electromagnetic waves with much shorter wavelengths. For lithography. In this way, the "wide knife" becomes a "narrow knife."
Hu Song said that the lithography machine has a maximum linewidth resolution of 22 nm in a single exposure at a wavelength of 365 nm, which is equivalent to 1/17 wavelength. In principle, the project breaks through the resolution diffraction limit and establishes a new high-resolution, large-area nanolithography equipment research and development route. It has completely independent intellectual property rights and is a revolution in metamaterials/supersurfaces, third-generation optical devices, and generalized chips. The leap-forward development of the sex field provides manufacturing tools. He specializes in processing a range of nano-functional devices, including large-diameter thin film mirrors, superconducting nanowire single photon detectors, Cherenkov radiation devices, biochemical sensor chips and ultra-surface imaging devices.
According to the report, the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has mastered core patents such as super-resolution lithography lens, precision gap detection, nano-level positioning precision workpiece table, high aspect ratio etching and multiple graphic matching lithography processes. , leading the world in the field of super-resolution imaging lithography.
ASML equipment still dominates, and domestic efforts still need to work hard.
Prior to this, Shanghai Microelectronics, which was established in 2002, has taken the lead in developing a 90nm process lithography machine. Now the 22nm lithography machine developed by the Institute of Optoelectronic Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has passed the acceptance test, which can be said to achieve leapfrog progress. It is understood that the related devices for the manufacture of such super-resolution lithography equipment have been studied in many research institutes and universities such as the Eighth Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the University of Electronic Science and Technology, the West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and the Microsystems Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Applied in the task.
Although Chinese research institutes have developed new lithography machines, lithography machines developed by ASML in the Netherlands are still the first choice for Chinese customers. At the end of May this year, according to Dutch media reports, the Chinese chip giant “Yangtze Storage” shipped a $72 million lithography machine ordered from ASML to Wuhan, Hubei.
Another Japanese media reported that China's other chip maker SMIC also ordered a $120 million lithography machine from ASML, which is expected to be delivered in 2019.
Following ZTE and Fujian Jinhua, it is reported that the United States is considering sanctioning China's monitoring equipment giant Hikvision and cutting off chip supply. This will prompt China to accelerate the pace of applying domestic equipment.
They really need to hone their laser design capability which is needed for EUV if they want equipment for 5nm and below.
It's limitation is 10 nm theoretically. ASML 193 nm DUV can do 7nm with multipatterning.
Yet to see if China can produce large quantity of large projection Lens that make it work.
If they can make those lens, they would be in the class of Nikon and Carl Zeiss. Special CaF aspherical lens. China would have world class camera lens maker.
I really doubt they have that lens manufacturing capability to make it happen. Those research institutes doing prototype is one thing, but controlled manufacturing tech is not their forte.
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That's interesting things, guys!
Thanks for all the information you provide
I regret that I didn't study physics at university, lithographic things are really interesting!
Thanks for all the information you provide
I regret that I didn't study physics at university, lithographic things are really interesting!
UK is all set to drop Huawei over coronas virus issue. This will have a domino effect in Europe. Huawei will face big issues.
Creepy China dude in this forum says Huawei is all that and doesn't need my advices but I still need tto point it out it needs to branch out to survive. It needs to branch out into other areas.
Be like Samsung , do it all. Memory , MCU, design/manufacturing. Printer, washing machine/refrigerator like whirlpool, CIS cmos image sensor like Sony, Foundry like TSMC, phone and now 5G communication like Huawei.
It practically does everything.
Also if China willing to pour money into such dangerous virus lab for research on bat then they should setup a lab for EUV which they are not doing it now. EUV project is more useful and way safer . The virus lab now they try to muzzled it over. Thats failed national policy there.
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Skywatcher
Captain
That's f**king NY Post, which is only a step or two above the Weekly World News.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I don't see anything new in this news article, just conservative British politicians making noise as usual. Right after Huawei won the contract and they lost the vote to overturn Johnson, they were saying that Huawei is to be phased out. This is the same thing being said again by the same people and this is what British conservatives will say no matter what happened. Don't see any decisions or announcements by those in charge being given to Huawei.
Who's "creepy China dude", moldy old cabbage? A forum member who you are scared of and hope won't see this pose and respond? C'mon, still lamenting about Huawei ignoring you? How deeply hurt you must have been to keep talking about something that happened so many years ago...
This must not be me because I don't write with a junior high level vocabulary so I certainly wouldn't call something "all that" but I'm sure I said that Huawei has more 5G contracts and 5G patents than anybody else and no US ban has so far stopped its 5G roll-out.
A BSL4 lab is a must-have and although I agree that money must also be invested in EUV, I'm not at all convinced that you know what's going on in China, but rather that you confidently proclaim what's happening to the best of your knowledge, hoping nobody knows China's top initiatives in the sector.
I don't know about that, but I do know that for someone who claims to be so knowledgeable on semiconductors and EUV to not become the founder of a top semiconductor/EUV company but instead end up a guy desperately trying to convince people on a military forum about his expertise on the field while hoping that retirement will bring love, is failed personal policy.
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don't get emotional!
Why don't search the internet about Boris Johnson changing his mind..it's all over outthere
Why don't you put in some technical analysis instead spewing your worthless opinions.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
I gave technical and logical analysis all the time. Logic checks are worth far more than your worthless non-evidenced claims and rejected advice.
1. Your new article is the same old stuff repeated by the same old politicians pre and post pandemic.
2. Huawei has more 5G contracts and 5G patents than anybody else and no US ban has so far stopped its 5G roll-out, so what evidence is there that it's in trouble?
3. Someone who has failed at even personal policy has no place judging company, much less national policy.
Why don't you post an article about Boris Johnson changing his mind? Although not definitive, it would at least be something new.
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