Determination of the state of target matter for EUV generation: advancing metrology
Topsector Holland High Tech funded the project ‘Determination of the state of target matter for EUV generation: advancing metrology'. Project partners ARCNL, ASML, Amsterdam Scientific Instruments and Lambert Instruments will contribute to the current development and optimization of ASML EUV sources, in particular to increase life- and uptime of such sources.
Laser-produced plasmas, generated from tin targets carefully prepared by series of laser “prepulses”, provide the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light that powers state-of-the-art nanolithography. The efficiency of generating this EUV light, and the stability and “uptime” of an EUV stepper tool, is strongly correlated with the ability to shape and control the tin target before it is hit by an energetic CO2 laser pulse.
Currently, it is unclear how the tin target mass is spatially distributed and moreover its phase: liquid, gaseous, or plasma, is not known. Therefore, the focus of the TKI project will be to determine the phase of the target tin matter as a function of pre-pulse laser parameters.
