Information gathered in this project helped Lucent better understand the technical issues related to EUV lithography. Publication of numerous technical papers resulting from the project has advanced the state of the art for everyone in this technical community. And although Lucent later decided to pursue an alternative lithography approach, other companies have incorporated the ATP-funded technology into research and development work that could lead to systems that are commercialized in the future. This is one of several approaches being considered for fabricating future generations of computer chips with extremely dense, compact microelectronic circuits. Lucent and its subcontractors developed dramatically improved techniques for fabricating, testing and aligning extremely precise aspherical, multilayer-coated mirrors essential to EUV technology, a candidate for future lithography systems.
Lithography is a key step in manufacturing integrated circuits.
Aspheric mirrors, whose surfaces have nonspherical curvature, are much more difficult to make and measure than mirrors with flat or spherically curved surfaces. They are particularly difficult to make for the ultrashort wavelengths used in this technology. Researchers significantly advanced the state of the art of the physics and metrology for these EUV lithography systems. Tropel succeeded and is now using this technology for its own products. Tinsley Laboratories, a subcontractor, fabricated mirrors 10 times more precise than any produced before the ATP project.