HIGH THROUGHPUT X-PINCH SOFT X-RAY SOURCE FOR X-RAY LITHOGRAPHY

X-RAY LITHOGRAPHY WILL BE USED IN THE FUTURE TO MAKE SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES HAVING FEATURE SIZES OF <_.25 MICROMETERS. THE X-PINCH SOFT X-RAY SOURCE BEING DEVELOPED AT THE LABORATORY OF PLASMA STUDIES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, APPEARS TO BE AN ATTRACTIVE SOURCE FOR LITHOGRAPHY FROM BOTH A CAPITAL COST AND THROUGHPUT STANDPOINT. CURRENT EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS INDICATE THAT A PROTOTYPE X-PINCH SOURCE DRIVEN BY A 550KA 80NS FWHM PULSED POWER GENERATOR IS CAPABLE OF RESIST EXPOSURE TIMES OF < 3 SECONDS OPERATING AT 1-10 PULSES PER SECOND AND CAN BE FABRICATED FOR UNDER $500,000. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PHASE I PROPOSAL EFFORT IS TO DESIGN A HIGH THROUGHPUT PROTOTYPE X-RAY SOURCE BASED ON CURRENT AND FUTURE RESULTS FROM THE X-PINCH EXPERIMENTS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY. THE X-PINCH DRIVER POWER AND REPETITION RATE REQUIREMENTS WILL BE DETERMINED BY EXAMINING RESIST SENSITIVITIES AND MASK TO WAFER ALIGNMENT TOLERANCES. A DEVICE FOR REPLACING THE X-PINCH WIRE ARRAY UP TOTEN TIMES PER SECOND WILL BE DESIGNED. A PROTOTYPE REPETITION RATE PULSED POWER GENERATOR WILL BE DESIGNED. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT OF THE X-PINCH SOURCE WOULD RESULT IN A COMPACT, INEXPENSIVE X-RAY SOURCE FOR LITHOGRAPHY. THIS WOULD PERMIT DEVELOPMENT OF A <_.25 MICROMETER FEATURE SIZE SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING FACILITY ON A SMALL SCALE WITH LOW INITIAL CAPITAL COSTS (IN COMPARISON WITH SYNCHROTRON SOURCES) WHICH COULD THEN BE INCREASED IN SIZE INCREMENTALLY AS TECHNOLOGIES AND MARKET DEMANDS DICTATE. KEY WORDS - LITHOGRAPHY, SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY, X-RAY, X-PINCH, PULSED POWER.