PFI-TT: Enhancing the Mass Production of Advanced Integrated Circuits

该创新技术转化合作伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力旨在开发新技术，以弥合新高功率光源的知识差距，这些光源是提高先进集成电路（IC）芯片大规模生产速度所必需的。集成电路的大批量制造是世界上最具经济重要性的工业活动之一，使数据通信，信息技术，医疗诊断和运输成为可能。该项目将改进半导体光刻技术，即在生产过程中将电路图案印刷到硅芯片上的工艺。 这是先进IC大批量制造中最关键、资本密集型的一步。印刷更小的特征以允许每个芯片更多的晶体管在很大程度上取决于更好的光源。 这些光源的效率和功率的提高将提高光刻工具的生产率和成本，降低先进IC的制造成本。该项目旨在提高EUV光刻机的效率，EUV光刻是一种新的投影光刻技术，使用波长更短的光。EUV光刻经过30年的发展，于2019年进入大批量制造。在先进的光刻机中，EUV光是通过激光加热液态锡微滴产生的，高度带电的锡离子从该微滴发射波长接近13.5 nm的EUV辐射。 虽然目前可从激光产生的等离子体获得的EUV光功率足以启动新一代更强大的IC的大批量制造，但高产量和成本效益的制造仍然需要显著更高的EUV功率。对EUV光刻源中的微滴等离子体演化的增加的理解和控制可以潜在地增加其EUV转换效率和平均功率。利用之前在CSU进行的工作，该计划将展示使用EUV激光探针对基准模型进行锡靶等离子体演变成像的技术和方法。EUV探针可以穿透可见激光探针无法到达的等离子体区域，并检测可见光不可见的中性原子浓度，从而获得必要的理解，以改进最先进的半导体电路的印刷。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation-Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project aims to develop new technology to bridge the knowledge gap in the generation of new high-power light sources that are required to increase the speed of mass production of the advanced integrated circuit (IC) chips. The high-volume manufacturing of ICs is one of the world’s most economically important industrial activities, enabling data communication, information technology, medical diagnostics, and transportation. The project will improve semiconductor lithography, the process of printing the circuit patterns onto silicon chips during production. This is the most critical and capital-intensive step in high-volume manufacturing of advanced ICs. The printing of smaller features to allow for more transistors per chip depends strongly on better light sources. Improvements in the efficiency and power of these light sources will improve the productivity and cost of lithography tools, reducing the fabrication cost of advanced ICs. The proposed project aims to improve the efficiency in the machines used in EUV lithography, a new projection lithography technique that uses dramatically shorter wavelength light. EUV lithography entered high volume manufacturing in 2019 after 3 decades of development. In advanced lithography machines, EUV light is produced by laser heating of liquid tin micro-droplets from which highly charged tin ions emit the EUV radiation at wavelengths near 13.5 nm. While the EUV light power presently achievable from laser-created plasmas is sufficient to initiate high volume manufacturing of a new generation of more powerful ICs, significantly higher EUV power is still required for high-throughput and cost-effective manufacturing. An increased understanding and control of the micro-droplet plasma evolution in EUV lithography sources can potentially increase their EUV conversion efficiency and average power. Taking advantage of previous work conducted at CSU, the plan is to demonstrate the technology and methodology to image the evolution of the tin targets plasmas using an EUV laser probe to benchmark models. The EUV probe can penetrate regions of the plasma inaccessible to visible laser probes and detect concentration of neutral atom invisible to visible light, gaining the understanding necessary to improve the printing of the most advanced semiconductor circuits.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.