Power up: 120 Watt injection-locked ArF excimer laser required for both multi-patterning and 450 mm wafer lithography

193nm ArF excimer lasers are widely used as light sources for the lithography process of semiconductor production. At first, ArF excimer lasers have been used in semiconductor productions at the 90nm node and recently ArF excimer lasers have begun to be used for the 32nm node, by the progress in the immersion technology and the double-patterning technology. Furthermore, considering current status of development of the lithography technology using a next-generation light source, or extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light source, the start of mass production with the next-generation light source is estimated to start from 2015. Therefore, there is a need for extension of 193nm immersion lithography technology. By using the multi-patterning and double-patterning technology, design rules below limit at single exposure is possible. However, throughput is reduced due to increased lithography processes. In order to improve a decrease in throughput, a high power ArF excimer laser and larger size wafer (450mm in diameter) is needed. We have developed a new high power laser with the concept of eco-friendly. In this paper, we will introduce technologies used for our latest ArF excimer laser having tunable output power between 90W and 120W and report its performance data.