In the face of the US embargo on ZTE's chips in April, we experienced the pain of being tainted by others and subjecting them to human beings. The key equipment required to produce high-performance chips is a lithography machine. Today we talk about lithography machines. Those things.

Mask Aligner (aka Mask Aligner), also known as mask aligner, exposure system, lithography system, etc., in which mask alignment lithography is a more commonly used lithography machine, this paper collects data and examples The mask aligns with the lithography machine.

Lithography machine classification

The high-end projection lithography machine can be divided into step projection and scanning projection lithography. The resolution is usually between tens of nanometers and several micrometers. The high-end lithography machine is known as the world's most sophisticated instrument. The engraving machine can be called the flower of the modern optical industry and its manufacture is difficult. At present, only a few companies in the world can manufacture it.

The lithography machines of foreign brands are mainly based on the Dutch ASML (Lithography Lens from Germany), Japan's Nikon, and Japan's Canon. The domestic lithography machine is mainly a projection type middle-end lithography machine developed by SMEE of Shanghai Microelectronics Equipment Co., Ltd. and has independent intellectual property rights. At present, the company's lithography machine has initially formed a series of products and began to sell at home and abroad.

The low-end lithography machines for production and R&D use are proximity and contact lithography machines. The resolution is usually more than several micrometers, and it is mainly the product brands of Germany, the United States and China.

Lithography machine performance index

The main performance index of the lithography machine is to support the "hard" index of the substrate size range, resolution, alignment accuracy, exposure mode, light source wavelength, light intensity uniformity, and production efficiency.

1) Resolution refers to the finest line accuracy that lithography processing can achieve. The resolution of lithography is mainly limited by the diffraction limit of the light source, which is to say that the Abbe limit (the resolution limit of an optical microscope is about half of the wavelength of visible light) is limited by what we call. By extension, the resolution of the lithography machine is also limited by the lithography optical system, photoresist and lithography processes.

2) The alignment accuracy is the positioning accuracy of the interlayer pattern in the multi-layer exposure.

Mask alignment photolithography photolithography process

The general photolithography process is subject to processes such as cleaning, drying, coating, spin coating photoresist, soft bake, alignment exposure, post-baking, developing, hard-baking, and etching. The initial process is to use light to make a reticle, and then evenly apply photoresist on the surface of the silicon wafer, transfer the pattern or circuit structure on the reticle to the silicon wafer, and then use optical etching on the silicon wafer. Etching what has been "replicated" onto the silicon.

Exposure system

The exposure system is one of the core components of the lithography machine. In order to minimize the limit of the diffraction limit, the exposure system uses a large number of ultraviolet, deep ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet light sources, such as mercury lamps and excimer lasers. The exposure system mainly achieves smooth diffraction effects, uniform illumination, filter and luminescence processing, and high light illumination and light intensity adjustment. Exposure methods are divided into contact proximity, projection, and direct writing. However, in general, the light source used in the exposure system must meet the following requirements:

1) The proper wavelength

The shorter the wavelength, the sharper the lithography blade, the smaller the feature size that can be used for etching, and the better the accuracy of the etching process.

2) have enough energy

The greater the energy, the shorter the exposure time spent in each etch.

3) The energy must be evenly distributed in the exposed area

The higher the uniformity or parallelism of the light in the exposed area, the more consistent the depth and width of the etching trace on the silicon wafer, the higher the etching accuracy, and the easier to control.

Alignment system

Alignment system is another core part of the lithography machine. The manufacture of high-precision alignment systems requires near-perfect precision mechanical processes. This is also a global lithography machine technical difficulty. Many U.S. and German-brand lithography machines have Special patented mechanical process design, such as patented patented all-pneumatic bearing design that can effectively avoid bearing mechanical friction errors.

Of course, microscopic optical systems and CCD detectors are another challenge for aligner alignment systems. According to the simplicity of operation and the level of precision, the aligning methods of the lithography machine can be divided into manual, semi-automatic and fully automatic.

The road to blue sky to Kaishan forest

"Ten thousand years is too long, just in time", in order to shorten the gap between our country and the international advanced lithography technology, and to break the monopoly and limit of the international high-end lithography machine market, China's "02 special" ("very large-scale integrated circuit manufacturing In the planning of the Technology and Complete Process Project, the strategic goal of developing high-end lithography machines has been identified, and the key technologies of EUV lithography have been listed as important tasks for the “32-22nm equipment technology forward-looking research”. Institutes such as Chengdu Optoelectronics Institute, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Technology, Institute of Microelectronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, etc.

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