A team of Chinese researchers from 
Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, led by Lin Nan (林楠) — previously ASML’s head of light source technology in Netherlands, have cracked a barrier to the home-grown production of advanced chipsby building an EUV light source platform that operates at internationally competitive parameters, according to the paper “1 μm 激光激发固体 Sn 靶等离子体 EUV 辐射特性 实验研究” published in the March issue of 中国激光 research journal.
Lin returned to China in 2021 as part of the country’s overseas high-level recruitment drive — Thousand Talents Program — and founded the advanced photolithography technology research group that was responsible for the paper.
Before joining ASML, Lin was mentored by Anne L’Huillier, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for physics and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as part of a scholarship awarded by the European Union’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme.
Lin’s team developed a laser-produced plasma (LPP) EUV light source, the main component of photolithography machines, in what could be a breakthrough for China’s semiconductor industry.
“The experimental platform will support the localisation of solid-state laser-driven plasma EUV light sources and measurement systems, playing a crucial role in China’s efforts to develop EUV photolithography technology and its key components.”
According to the paper, Lin and his team built a platform based on a solid-state laser, in contrast to ASML’s industrial photolithography devices, which use light derived from CO2-driven technology to transfer circuitry patterns on to silicon and other substrates.
CO2 lasers deliver more than 10 kilowatts of power and high repetition frequency, compared to the lower performance of solid-state based platforms.
“While commercial CO2 lasers offer high power, they are large, inefficient in terms of wall-plug efficiency (below 5%), and costly in terms of operation and electricity.”
“Solid-state pulse lasers, which have made rapid progress over the past decade, now achieve kilowatt-level power output and are expected to reach 10 times higher in the future. They have compact size, with a wall-plug efficiency of around 20%, and could be a promising replacement for CO2 lasers as the next-generation driving source for LPP-EUV photolithography.”
The experimental platform achieved results that were on a par with similar international research into solid-state LLP EUVs, while reaching more than half of the conversion efficiency rate of commercially available CO2 laser-driven light sources.
Using a 1 micron solid-state laser, the team achieved a maximum conversion efficiency of 3.42% – surpassing the 3.2% recorded in 2019 by the Netherlands’ Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography, and ETH Zurich’s 1.8% in 2021.
The data comparison showed the Chinese platform lagging behind the University of Central Florida’s 4.9%, achieved in 2007, and Japan’s Utsunomiya University, which last year recorded a conversion efficiency of 4.7%.
The conversion efficiency of commercially available CO2 laser-driven EUV photolithography light sources is around 5.5%.
The researchers noted that kilowatt-level 1-micron solid-state lasers, capable of delivering a sufficiently high conversion efficiency rate, were already well-developed and commercially available.
“Even with a conversion efficiency of 3%, a solid-state laser-driven LPP-EUV light source could provide power in the watt range, making it suitable for EUV exposure validation and mask inspection.”
The researchers estimated that the platform’s theoretical maximum conversion efficiency could approach 6%. They plan to add further measurements to optimise both the theoretical and experimental results.
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Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, led by Lin Nan (林楠) — previously ASML’s head of light source technology in Netherlands, have cracked a barrier to the home-grown production of advanced chipsby building an EUV light source platform that operates at internationally competitive parameters, according to the paper “1 μm 激光激发固体 Sn 靶等离子体 EUV 辐射特性 实验研究” published in the March issue of 中国激光 research journal.
Lin returned to China in 2021 as part of the country’s overseas high-level recruitment drive — Thousand Talents Program — and founded the advanced photolithography technology research group that was responsible for the paper.
Before joining ASML, Lin was mentored by Anne L’Huillier, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for physics and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as part of a scholarship awarded by the European Union’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme.
Lin’s team developed a laser-produced plasma (LPP) EUV light source, the main component of photolithography machines, in what could be a breakthrough for China’s semiconductor industry.
“The experimental platform will support the localisation of solid-state laser-driven plasma EUV light sources and measurement systems, playing a crucial role in China’s efforts to develop EUV photolithography technology and its key components.”
According to the paper, Lin and his team built a platform based on a solid-state laser, in contrast to ASML’s industrial photolithography devices, which use light derived from CO2-driven technology to transfer circuitry patterns on to silicon and other substrates.
CO2 lasers deliver more than 10 kilowatts of power and high repetition frequency, compared to the lower performance of solid-state based platforms.
“While commercial CO2 lasers offer high power, they are large, inefficient in terms of wall-plug efficiency (below 5%), and costly in terms of operation and electricity.”
“Solid-state pulse lasers, which have made rapid progress over the past decade, now achieve kilowatt-level power output and are expected to reach 10 times higher in the future. They have compact size, with a wall-plug efficiency of around 20%, and could be a promising replacement for CO2 lasers as the next-generation driving source for LPP-EUV photolithography.”
The experimental platform achieved results that were on a par with similar international research into solid-state LLP EUVs, while reaching more than half of the conversion efficiency rate of commercially available CO2 laser-driven light sources.
Using a 1 micron solid-state laser, the team achieved a maximum conversion efficiency of 3.42% – surpassing the 3.2% recorded in 2019 by the Netherlands’ Advanced Research Centre for Nanolithography, and ETH Zurich’s 1.8% in 2021.
The data comparison showed the Chinese platform lagging behind the University of Central Florida’s 4.9%, achieved in 2007, and Japan’s Utsunomiya University, which last year recorded a conversion efficiency of 4.7%.
The conversion efficiency of commercially available CO2 laser-driven EUV photolithography light sources is around 5.5%.
The researchers noted that kilowatt-level 1-micron solid-state lasers, capable of delivering a sufficiently high conversion efficiency rate, were already well-developed and commercially available.
“Even with a conversion efficiency of 3%, a solid-state laser-driven LPP-EUV light source could provide power in the watt range, making it suitable for EUV exposure validation and mask inspection.”
The researchers estimated that the platform’s theoretical maximum conversion efficiency could approach 6%. They plan to add further measurements to optimise both the theoretical and experimental results.
amp.scmp.com/news/china/sci
msn.com/en-xl/news/oth