ASML’s “invisible monopoly” is indisputable. Although without the technology of these companies would not have reached the top

“In 1997, Jos Benschop, the leader of the Investigation Department of ASMLreassess whether extreme ultraviolet technology (UVE) was a viable option. After the first tests he realized that Zeiss was able to develop extraordinarily sophisticated mirrors that would be necessary to transport ultraviolet light. Everything began to change: The puzzle pieces began to fit in their holes and that impossible machine was acquiring little by little. ”

These lines come from the chapter entitled “An invisible monopoly” from the very interesting trial book “Focus: The Asml Way” written by Dutch journalist Marc Hijink. We have resorted to them to open this text for a weight reason: they perfectly condense the complexity of the lithography machine that has allowed ASML to lead the industry of the manufacturing equipment of chips alone. And it is that Europe has a voice in the integrated circuit industry thanks to this company of the Netherlands.

ASML has no competition since its first UVE photolithography team placed on the market. Japanese Canon and Nikon companies, their natural competitors, also tried to develop this machine, but failed in the attempt. The technical and economic resources that were necessary to make it possible were so numerous that They decided to retire from the struggle with Asml. Free road. Today the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing machines that we can find in the TSMC, Intel, Samsung or SK Hynix plants produce ASML.

Currently his reign seems imperturbable. Canon has developed a team of nano -impression lithography that it seeks to compete from you to you with the UVE machines of ASML, but for the moment it is not clear that this technology will be able to rival the most advanced team of the Dutch company: the machine of High Opening Photolithography (UVE). Intel is already testing it, and it is expected that TSMC and Samsung do so for the next few months. Presumably thanks to it they can produce chips of less than 1 nm before this decade expires.

ASML does not walk alone

UVE photolithography equipment is extraordinarily sophisticated. The GPUs for artificial intelligence more advanced from Nvidia; The most powerful soc that Apple or the CPUs with the highest AMD performance are possible thanks to them. Of course, none of these companies make their own chips. They design them, but they are produced by the Taiwanese company TSMC using ASML UVE lithography machines. However, this European Corporation has not developed solo all innovations that have made its most advanced integrated circuit production equipment possible.

One of its most important allies is the American company Cymer. This company founded in 1986 specializes in the manufacture of lasers and deep ultraviolet light sources (UVP) and extreme (UVE). It has a very close relationship with ASML for many years; In fact, the role that Cymer manufactures in lithography machines is so relevant than in 2013 ASML bought this San Diego company with the purpose of investing in it to accelerate the development of the technologies involved in UVE lithography.

Somehow Cymer gives ASML the raw material that their photolithography machines need. And that raw material is none other than the ultraviolet light that is responsible for transporting the geometric pattern described by the mask so that it can be transferred with great precision to the surface of the Silicon wafer. Understanding what is the mask is simple: it is nothing other than a physical template that contains the design of the integrated circuit that is necessary to transfer to the Silicon wafer.

During this transfer process a fine sheet of a substance sensitive to ultraviolet light is placed on the wafer and exposes the latter. The mask blocks or allows the passage of light in concrete regions of the wafer, thus transferring the chip pattern. Then the development, engraving and deposition processes follow each other whose purpose is, in broad strokes, transfer the different layers of the circuit integrated to the wafer and consolidate the transistors and interconnections that shape the chip.

Interestingly, as we have just seen, the photolithography process is very similar to the chemical development of photographs. Of course, it is much more complex and requires working with resolutions that until a few years ago were unimaginable. Precisely thanks to the very high resolution with which it is possible to transfer the geometric pattern that describes the circuit integrated to the wafer today we enjoy Integrated 3 Nm circuits. And for 2025 they will be available The first 2 Nm semiconductors.

Since we are involved in flour, it is worth investigating a little more in the characteristics of the light used by UVE lithography equipment. And its most striking property is that it belongs to the most energy portion of the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, its wavelength extends in the range that goes From 10 to 100 nanometers (NM). The problem is that it is not easy to generate and deal with this form of electromagnetic radiation. And it is not, among other reasons, because it is so energetic that it alters the structure of the physical elements with which it interacts inside the lithography machine.

In addition, the UVE light must travel from the source to the silicon wafer without interacting with the slightest dust particle, so it is necessary that the entire chips production process be carried out inside a camera designed to provide a very quality vacuum. Anyway, the transport of ultraviolet light from the fountain that produces it to the wafer is only possible thanks to the intervention of the mirrors that the other great ally of ASML designs and manufactures: the German company Zeiss.

The role of Zeiss’s optical elements in these lithography equipment is crucial. And it is because they are responsible, leaving aside the most complex details, of moving the UVE light with a wavelength of 13.5 nm from the source that is responsible for its emission to the mask it contains The geometric pattern that is necessary to capture in the silicon wafer. But this is not all. From this moment on, the projection optics enters into action with the purpose of transferring the UVE radiation that the geometric pattern already contains to the wafer of semiconductor material. That said it does not seem very complex, but it is. It is a very complex process.

If the mirrors involved in the propagation of the UVE light are not manufactured with enormous precision the geometric pattern defined by the mask will be altered, and the chips will be damaged. In addition, the reflector mirrors that are responsible for transporting the light from the emitter source to the mask must ensure that the UVE radiation reaches the latter with an extreme uniformity. Otherwise, again, the integrated circuit manufacturing process will not succeed.

Image | ASML

BIBLIOGRAPHY | ‘Focus: The Asml Way’by Marc Hijink

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