TEL joins DSA, maskless litho projects

Japan's Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) is working with on two collaborative lithography research projects spearheaded by the CEA-Leti research institute.

One of the projects is the Ideal project, which deals with directed self-assembly (DSA). DSA uses inherent processes within materials to produce ordered structures. Some of these processes, such as the formation of stripes within polymeric materials, can be fined tuned by altering the chemistry to achieve nanometric features that can be used to augment optical and extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography. According to CEA-Leti, the Ideal project aims to develop processes and materials for DSA lithography on 300mm wafers for manufacturing beyond 20nm.

Imec rolls 300mm directed self-assembly process line Imec has developed what it touts as the world's first 300mm fab-compatible directed self-assembly (DSA) process line within its pilot fab. The research institute collaborated with the University of Wisconsin, AZ Electronic Materials and TEL in this technology to improve optical and EUV lithography. Read the whole article here.

The second program is the Imagine project, which supports the evolution and the launch maskless multibeam direct-write e-beam lithography technology developed by Mapper Lithograhy BV.

CEA-Leti has announced that the R&D program will be extended for another three years. This will include the installation of the first pre-production tools at CEA-Leti facilities in Grenoble.

"The TEL interest in joining both development programs on ML2 (maskless lithography) and DSA is a strong message to the industry of the coming maturity of these lithography solutions for the next advanced nodes," said Serge Tedesco, CEA-Leti program manager.