Publications

Wafer and reticle positioning system for the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Engineering Test Stand

Wronosky, John B.; Smith, Tony G.; Craig, Marcus J.; Sturgis, Beverly R.; Darnold, Joel R.; Werling, David K.; Kincy, Mark A.; Tichenor, Daniel A.; Williams, Mark E.; Bischoff, Paul

This paper is an overview of the wafer and reticle positioning system of the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) Engineering Test Stand (ETS). EUVL represents one of the most promising technologies for supporting the integrated circuit (IC) industry's lithography needs for critical features below 100 nm. EUVL research and development includes development of capabilities for demonstrating key EUV technologies. The ETS is under development at the EUV Virtual National Laboratory, to demonstrate EUV full-field imaging and provide data that supports production-tool development. The stages and their associated metrology operate in a vacuum environment and must meet stringent outgassing specifications. A tight tolerance is placed on the stage tracking performance to minimize image distortion and provide high position repeatability. The wafer must track the reticle with less than ±3 nm of position error and jitter must not exceed 10 nm rms. To meet these performance requirements, magnetically levitated positioning stages utilizing a system of sophisticated control electronics will be used. System modeling and experimentation have contributed to the development of the positioning system and results indicate that desired ETS performance is achievable.