Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is an emerging technology that shrinks circuit features of silicon microelectronics down 7 nm or less. This technology requires specially designed wafer tables that are extremely flat to successfully process wafers through EUV lithography. II-VI’s products based on reaction bonded silicon carbide (RB SiC) meet the very tight flatness tolerances that are required to achieve the EUV lithography throughput requirements and yield targets that FEOL equipment manufacturers require.

High power CO2 lasers are an important part of EUV Lithography systems. They are used to excite tin droplets with high energy laser pulses. This process generates the EUV radiation, which is directed to wafers using a complex arrangement of mirrors specially designed for the very short EUV wavelengths.

 

II-VI leverages its engineered materials, designed and manufactured in house, for a broad range of components that are designed into the CO2 laser system and surrounding the EUV optics. II-VI’s zinc selenide (ZnSe) components and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond windows are used for the laser optics, both within the seed laser and in the optical system that directs and focusses the laser beam onto the tin droplets.