ASML, ST intensify work on 28-nm patterning

Peter Clarke EE Times 12/03/2009 7:09 AM EST)

LONDON — ASML Holding NV (Veldhoven, The Netherlands) has announced a project with STMicroelectronics to accelerate 28-nm and 22-nm manufacturing process node development.

This project, code-named SOLID (Silicon printing Optimization with Lithography control and Integrated Design), seeks to optimize the patterning process from design to manufacturing, extend characterization tools and methods to develop new correction and compensation techniques for reducing variability. The project will also explore lithography options for manufacturing complex chips at sub-30-nm nodes.

ST will work with Tachyon SMO source-mask co-optimization from Brion Technologies, a subsidiary of ASML and in tandem with ASML's illumination sources, including the recently announced FlexRay programmable illuminator. ST has used Brion's Tachyon optical proximity correction and lithography manufacturability check software for its 45-nm production.

"This joint development project combined with ASML's integrated suite of lithography products, including Brion computational solutions and the latest generation of Twinscan NXT scanner provides ST with computational and wafer lithography technologies that will enable us to develop optimum manufacturing solutions at 28-nm and below," said Joel Hartmann, silicon technology development director for STMicroelectronics, at Crolles, France, in a statement issued by ASML. "This is a perfect example of a project developed within the framework of the Nano2012 program," he added.

Nano2012 is a strategic R&D program, led by ST, which gathers research institutes and industrial partners and is supported by French national, regional and local authorities with about 450 million euros of support (about $680 million).

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