EUV lithography – enabling progress in the digital era

EUV lithography wins the race for the microchip production method of the future. For many years, the semi-conductor industry has been looking for a cost-efficient and mass-production process to expose even smaller structures on silicon wafers. ASML, Zeiss, and TRUMPF joined forces to develop a technology to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers for industrial use: In a vacuum chamber, a droplet generator shoots 50,000 tiny tin droplets per second. Each of these droplets is hit by one of the 50,000 laser pulses and turned into plasma. This produces EUV light, which is directed by a mirror onto the wafers to be exposed. The laser pulse for the plasma radiation is provided by a pulsable CO2 laser system developed by TRUMPF – the TRUMPF Laser Amplifier.