Abstract

After more than a decade of research, KrF excimer laser sources are finally being introduced into leading edge manufacturing equipment for integrated circuit lithography at 0.25-0.30 μm feature sizes. The current industry consensus is that the most likely path for advanced IC lithograpy over the coming decade will involve excimer laser sources and projection optical systems extending all the way down to about 0.13 μm feature size. Such technology will be used to manufacture 4 Gbit memory chips, microprocessors, and other integrated circuit systems with upwards of one billion transistors on a chip.

© 1996 Optical Society of America