High-brightness EUV light source for HVM

The roll out of EUV lithography for HVM, including the associated tools for actinic mask and mask blank defect inspection, require reliable and powerful EUV radiation sources. NANO-UV has developed a unique EUV/soft X-ray source, the CYCLOPSTM, based on a fast, micro-plasma pulsed discharge, incorporating the i-SoCoMoTM technology; an intrinsic plasma structure to provide photon collection and delivery. We report on the EUV light source development, including the extensive numerical modelling which provided the basic parameters required for high power or high irradiance operating regimes. Without using external physical optics, a peak irradiance exceeding 1018 ph/cm2/s, in a 3 nm bandwidth around 13.5nm, has been recorded at a distance 74 cm downstream from the source, which was operating at 1 kHz in a He:N2:Xe gas admixture at up to 0.5J per pulse operation. A new Sn-alloy cathode material has enhanced the output by a factor of 1.5 with the power now delivered in a sub-cm size spot being greater than 20W in 3nm band, with a typical étendue below 10-2 mm2•sr. NANO-UV can meet the HVM source requirements with its HYDRATM spatial/temporal multiplexed source development. A multiplex of 12 units form HYDRATM -12P having the potential of reaching 240W (within 3 nm EUV band) at IF demonstrates multiplexing principle.