Intel Invests Again in EUV Lithography
Online staff -- EDN, February 25, 2004
Intel Corp. and Media Lario International S.A. have teamed up to accelerate the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
The companies today announced two agreements to that end that call for an equity investment by venture capital arm, Intel Capital, in the Milan, Italy-based optical component company. The deal is designed to accelerate Media Lario's research and development activity for EUV.
The companies did not disclose specific terms of the agreements.
The companies expect EUV lithography to be commercialized by 2009, but several technical hurdles must be overcome for the technology to be delivered on time, they said in a statement. In particular, these requirements need to be addressed through design and manufacture of very high accuracy reflective optical components, the kind made by Media Lario.
In simple terms, EUV technology as it exists right now uses a series of those optical components, essentially high-tech mirrors, to transmit a 13nm beam from the light source to the target wafer.
"These agreements will help accelerate the development, and commercialization of high accuracy reflective mirrors and mirror systems to meet the ever-stringent optical performance and cost of the current and next generation lithography equipment (EUV)," said Giovanni Nocerino, president and CEO of Media Lario, in a statement.
The technology is one of Intel's roads to shrinking its devices even further; it has been an early and staunch supporter of EUV.
"Developing EUV optics technology to enable affordable EUV source and lithography systems for high-volume manufacturing on the 32-nanometer node in 2009 is a key challenge at Intel," said Peter Silverman, Intel Fellow and director of the company's lithography capital equipment development.
