Nikon Releases NSR-S622D, the Latest ArF Immersion Scanner

(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nikon Corporation (Makoto Kimura, President, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) announced the release of its latest ArF immersion scanner, "NSR-S622D." NSR-S622D has been developed for high-volume manufacturing of the 20nm process node (capable of handling multiple patterning *1 ) by further enhancing the accuracy of the proven NSR-S621D Streamlign Platform with a reputation for high accuracy and productivity. MMO *2 (Mix and Match Overlay: machine-to-machine overlay accuracy), which is critical in multiple patterning, in particular, has been markedly improved to meet customers' demand for stable production.

*1 Multiple patterning: A circuit pattern is divided into two or more patterns with a feature density low enough to be printed with an existing immersion lithography system, which are then combined to ultimately render a high feature density.

*2 MMO (Mix and Match Overlay): overlay accuracy among multiple identical scanners Overview Product Name NSR-S622D, ArF Immersion Scanner Release Date Starting February 2013 Development Background VLSI chips, the backbone of the IT revolution, continue to shrink and get denser. The semiconductor industry is transitioning to development and high-volume manufacturing of sub- 20-nm generation process devices. In the photolithography field, the multiple patterning technology using an ArF immersion lithography system continues to be considered promising for further shrinking of design rules, requiring high overlay accuracy and high throughput.

NSR-S622D realizes an improved Mix and Match overlay accuracy (MMO) by enhancing the projection lens performance and autofocus mechanism, while continuing to maintain the high throughput achieved in NSR-S621D.

This enables an extremely high productivity of more than 200wph throughput and super high accuracy of 3.5nm MMO, contributing to stable volume manufacturing at chip makers' cutting edge production lines. Main Characteristics of the Streamlign Platform Bird's Eye Control system: New interferometer system that realizes significant improvement in overlay accuracy Use of encoders delivers stage position measurements that are insensitive to air fluctuations, and in conjunction with the conventional interferometer measurements, a hybrid system that enables improved overlay accuracy is realized.

Stream Alignment: New measurement technology that realizes a dramatic improvement in throughput By increasing the number of FIA microscopes to five (Five-Eye FIA) *3 , alignment measurements can be performed in a shorter period of time.

Five-Eye FIA minimizes throughput loss even when multiple points, nearly equal to the entire amount of shots, have to be measured.

*3 Five-Eye FIA: The number of alignment microscopes was increased from the conventional one to 5 (multiple lens type).

Modular 2 Structure : New modular structure for improved maintainability With its hierarchicalized module, installation time at a customer site is reduced and parts replacement is simplified. This substantially improves maintainability.

Main Performance Features Resolution <=38nm NA 1.35 Light source ArF excimer laser (193nm) Reduction magnification Maximum exposure area 26x33mm Overlay accuracy (M+3 ) SMO * <=2nm Overlay accuracy (M+3 ) MMO * <=3.5nm Throughput (300mm wafer)125 shots >=200wph * SMO (Single Match Overlay) : machine-to-self overlay accuracy (NSR-S622D#1 to S622D#1) * MMO (Mix and Match Overlay) : machine-to-machine overlay accuracy (NSR-S622D#1 to NSR-S622D#2) The information is current as of the date of publication. It is subject to change without notice.

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