TSMC, CEA-Leti team on maskless litho

CEA-Leti signed an agreement with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd for the latter to join CEA-Leti's IMAGINE industrial program on maskless lithography for IC manufacturing. The program allows companies to assess a maskless lithography infrastructure for IC manufacturing and use MAPPER Technology as a solution towards high throughput for three years. It covers a global approach, including tool assessment, patterning and process integration, data handling, prototyping and cost analysis.

Jack Sun, #LINKKEYWORD0# R&D VP, said, "TSMC is always pushing for cost-effective lithography and the development of maskless lithography is one of the potential solutions. We have already announced the joint steps with Mapper to explore multiple e-beam lithography for IC manufacturing at 22nm node and beyond," He added that "By joining the IMAGINE program at CEA-Leti, we intend to federate the semiconductor industry around this technology and accelerate its development and introduction for IC manufacturing."

Laurent Malier, Leti's CEO, believes that while lithography is a major challenge for the industry, the maskless approach offers flexibility and gain in cost of ownership. Combined with MAPPER, it can achieve industrial throughput. He noted that "Having TSMC on board the IMAGINE program is pivotal and will strengthen the assessment towards manufacturing. It shows the commitment in the technology from the industry and will take maskless lithography to the next step in the development that is required to make it a viable solution for 22nm manufacturing."