EUCLIDES: European EUVL program

In August 1998 a new European research program named extreme ultraviolet co ncept lithography development system (EUCLIDES) was started. The program, h eaded by ASM Lithography (ASML), partnered by Carl Zeiss and Oxford Instrum ents, is evaluating extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) as a viable lith ographic solution for resolutions of 70 nm and smaller. In this article a s ummary of program objectives and. status will be given, followed by an over view of recent highlights obtained by the various program partners and subc ontractors. Results of the system architecture study will be presented. The se include the (preliminary) results of the comparison study between laser plasma and synchrotron sources in terms of throughput and cost-of-ownership . A novel technique will be presented which mitigates resist outgassing wit hout the need of a window between the projection optics and the wafer. Usin g this idea the EUV flux on the wafer can be doubled hence increasing the t hroughput. An EUVL test bench, containing an EUV interferometer is under co nstruction. The test bench contains an operational water droplet laser plas ma source. Experimental results will be presented. Part of the program focu ses on optical and mechanical design, substrate fabrication, metrology, and multilayer coatings. Most recent results on coatings and optical substrate manufacturing will be presented. (C) 1999 American Vacuum Society, [S0734- 211X(99)18406-3].