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china's domestically produced duv lithography machine has achieved a milestone, with overlay ≤8nm

2024-09-15

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it home reported on september 15 that the ministry of industry and information technology issued the "guidelines for the promotion and application of the first major technological equipment (2024 edition)" on september 9. the document list includes domestic krypton fluoride lithography machines (110nm) and argon fluoride lithography machines (65nm).

china's first major technological equipment refers to equipment products that have achieved major technological breakthroughs in china, have intellectual property rights, and have not yet achieved significant market performance, including complete equipment, core systems, and key components.

it home attaches these two lines of information screenshots as follows:

  wafer diameter illumination wavelength resolution overprint
krypton fluoride (krf) lithography machine 300mm 248nm ≤110nm ≤25nm
argon fluoride (arf) lithography machine 300mm 193nm ≤65nm ≤8nm

both gases, krypton fluoride (krf) and argon fluoride (arf), serve deep ultraviolet (duv) lithography machines, which produce excimer lasers that produce deep ultraviolet light.

at present, the lithography machine has gone through five generations of development, from the earliest 436 wavelength, to the second generation of lithography machines using 365nm i-line, the third generation is 248nm krf laser. the fourth generation is 193nm wavelength duv laser, which is arf excimer laser.

image source: ping an securities

arf (argon fluoride) excimer laser source lithography machine, the actual wavelength of the light source exceeds 193nm, shortened to 134nm, the na value is 1.35, and the highest process node can be achieved 7nm.

immersion technology refers to immersing the space between the lens and the silicon wafer in liquid. since the refractive index of the liquid is greater than 1, the actual wavelength of the laser will be greatly reduced.

overlay accuracy is often referred to as "the highest accuracy that multiple exposures can achieve." based on the 1:3 relationship between overlay accuracy and mass production process, this lithography machine can probably mass-produce chips using a 28nm process.

the 28-nanometer lithography machine is the dividing line between low-end and mid-to-high-end chips, which means industrial independence. china's air conditioners, washing machines, automobiles and other industrial products can break through the numerous blockades set up by western countries and be independently produced and sold.