Gigaphoton ships 1,000th Excimer laser for photolithography

OYAMA, JAPAN: Gigaphoton Inc., a major lithography light source manufacturer, has shipped its 1,000th excimer laser for semiconductor photolithography.

Gigaphoton's predecessor, Komatsu, marketed Japan's first excimer laser (KLE-630) in 1985, followed by the world's first excimer laser for semiconductor photolithography (KLE-630S) in 1987. Since then, Gigaphoton has been developing and marketing excimer laser units that pursue finer resolution, higher throughput and lower running cost in order to meet the high expectations of the semiconductor market.

Gigaphoton's next-generation ArF excimer laser for multi-patterning immersion lithography scanners, the GT63A series, was created in response to customers' needs to create added value by incorporating the four powerful "s" series features: "sGRYCOS" (Sixty Gigaphoton Recycled Chamber Operation System), a unique chamber technology for achieving lower running cost; "sTGM" (Supreme Total Gas Manager), a gas management system for achieving higher uptime; "sMPL" (Spectrum Multi-Positioning LNM) *1), a spectrum control (or "focus drilling") technology for achieving wider depth of focus; and "sMONITORING" (Smart Monitoring), a monitoring technology for achieving higher stability.

These "s" series features can be incorporated into existing GT60A *2), GT61A, and GT62A series units to customize them according to the needs of each customer, given their common platform with the GT63A series.

The sGRYCOS technology extends the effective life of the laser chamber, one of the main consumable components of an excimer laser, to 1.5 times longer than a conventional chamber. This best-in-class standard has a 60 billion pulse lifetime. The sTGM technology eliminates the previous need to routinely replace the laser chamber's gas — by implementing an innovative wavelength calibration method.

This new industry standard eliminates wasted gas, reduces facility costs and improves laser availability. The recently proven sMPL technology for focus drilling increases laser spectrum control width to 10 times wider than the conventional one, ensuring a wider depth of focus. This creates new options for advanced process development in both the logic and memory markets. Finally, sMONITORING technology enhances existing real-time monitoring of laser performance and can be connected with the user's FDC (Fault Detection and Classification) system to ensure stable operation.

Dr Yuji Watanabe, president of Gigaphoton, said: "Gigaphoton's excimer lasers have reached a milestone of 1,000 units shipped. This accomplishment is proof that the market has approved our excellence in product development and product support, as well as the result of the long-term support and trust of our customers. Gigaphoton's rapid growth over the past three years is especially gratifying, so, I'd like to extend a special thank you to our customers. We at Gigaphoton will continue to respond to the trust of our customers with our leading-edge technologies and support forces."