Future Lithography Challenges

For the past 25 years, the resolution and productivity of lithography exposure tools have continuously improved. The latest exposure tools have adopted immersion technology with ArF excimer lasers for the production of half pitch (HP) 55 nm to 45 nm patterns and beyond. For HP 32 nm, EUVL is the main candidate. The author reports the status of development of EUV tools and future lithography challenges.