Digital scanner, optical maskless exposure tool with DUV solid state laser

Watanabe, Yoji; Kono, Hirotaka; Kanaya, Yuho; Saito, Yûsuke; Sakamoto, Toshiaki; Owa, Soichi; Hirayanagi, Noriyuki; Koo, Thomas Myeongseok; Poppe, C.; Tseng, D. Y.; Sorensen, Conrad; Lee, Hwan; Renwick, Stephen P.; Yuan, Bausan

doi:10.1117/12.2583680

Cited by 7 publications

(32 citation statements)

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“…Figure 4(c) is a part of a matrix of 10-mm-square chips. 3 Unique patterns were printed in each chip in order to demonstrate chip customization capability of the Digital Scanner. An SEM image of a device-like pattern and a part of corresponding pixelated mask are also shown.…”

Section: Pixelated Mask Data and Exposure Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Data preparation for digital scanner

Kanaya

Watanabe

Saito

et al. 2022

Photomask Technology 2022

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Nikon has been developing the Digital Scanner (DS), an optical maskless exposure tool with a DUV light source and a micromirror-type spatial light modulator (SLM). Rasterized digital data, essentially huge bitmap files, are used to drive the SLM. The DS enables new applications such as large area printing and chip customization because its digital pattern data are easily modified. Flexible and fast data preparation software was developed for the new applications. As a standard operation of DS data preparation software, a CAD file (GDS or OASIS) is converted into bitmap files. In addition, bitmap file generation by a scripting language is available without a CAD file. This is useful when the CAD file includes a lot of polygons in which each polygon is similar but not identical, resulting in a huge file. As an example of application, a metasurface consists of sub-wavelength periodic patterns with various shapes, which are arranged to achieve the desired optical effect. The shape of each pattern at a grid point can be determined by a computer program, i.e., a pattern generator script. On the other hand, data preparation time can be shortened for periodic pattern which is often seen in semiconductor circuits. We report those data preparation methods for the DS, which have been used for our recent exposure experiments.

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Section: Pixelated Mask Data and Exposure Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ruler in the picture tells that the diameter is 50 mm; the pixelated data size was 208 GB. Figure4(c) is a part of a matrix of 10-mm-square chips 3. Unique patterns were printed in each chip in order to…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Data preparation for digital scanner

Kanaya

Watanabe

Saito

et al. 2022

Photomask Technology 2022

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“…With this throughput, DS248 will be useful for R&D and prototyping. Moreover, if DS248 exposes chip ID pattern only without exposing entire area, higher wafer throughput of more than 100 wph can be obtained 3) . Thus, when throughput is upgraded to 20 wph, DS248 will be economically useful for small volume production such as a few hundreds of wafers per product.…”

Section: Mid Of 2020s Tbd Tbdmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One alternative technology is maskless exposure, which has advantages over mask exposure tool. Recently, the Digital Scanner (DS), a DUV optical maskless exposure tool, is being developed [2][3][4][5][6] . DS uses a micromirror-type spatial light modulator (SLM) to create the "mask" pattern combined with a solid-state laser with wavelength of 193 or 248 nm.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expected performance of digital scanner and the potential application for advanced semiconductor fabrication

Watanabe

Kanaya

Saito

et al. 2023

Optical and EUV Nanolithography XXXVI

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The first planned Digital Scanner product, DS248, will have the optical resolution of 110 nm and overlay accuracy of less than 10 nm, the same level as a KrF mask scanner. In addition, DS248 has more application areas, such as individual chip customization and large-area printing up to wafer size, with KrF resolution, which are not possible with the current mask scanner but will be beneficial for performance enhancement of semiconductor devices in future. The latest exposure results of DS-POC, which has the similar imaging performance with DS248, are introduced including chip ID exposure on entire 200 mm wafer and exposure of wafer scale integration substrate. Simulation data of high aspect ratio patterning with high resolution by means of integration of multiple heads of solid-state laser is described. Development progress of DS’s pixel mask conversion software that directly generates pixel mask from target pattern with OPC is reported.

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Review of optical direct-write technology for semiconductor manufacturing

Owa

2023

J. Micro/Nanopattern. Mats. Metro.

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Optical direct-write technology has been studied since the successful development of the micromirror-based spatial light modulators in the 1990s. It is expected to have advantages over electron beam direct-write in the viewpoints of higher productivity and common resist process with existing semiconductor manufacturing. In the 2000s, there was an effort to develop an optical direct-write system using deep ultraviolet (DUV) excimer laser and grayscale tilt micromirror devices, aiming at low-volume manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Recently, a new scheme of optical direct-write, called the digital scanner, has been demonstrated. It uses solid-state DUV laser and digitally controlled spatial light modulator. Past development activity of optical direct-write is reviewed with discussion of the merits and demerits of the proposed technological options in the new system, comparing them to past efforts.

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Digital scanner, optical maskless exposure tool with DUV solid state laser

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Data preparation for digital scanner

Data preparation for digital scanner

Expected performance of digital scanner and the potential application for advanced semiconductor fabrication

Review of optical direct-write technology for semiconductor manufacturing

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