Deep ultra-violet (DUV) laser and short pulse lasers are used for laser processing, because they can decrease the heat effect for process materials. We are developing a hybrid ArF excimer laser that is consists of a solid-state laser, multi wavelength conversion and ArF excimer amplifier. This laser can generate DUV light of 193 nm wavelength short pulse width. In this research, we demonstrated laser drilling on ultra-high temperature structural material that is silicon carbide ceramic matrix composites (SiC-CMC) using high peak power DUV laser. The removal rate was 150 nm/shot with 460 ps pulse. This rate was more than 4 times higher than ArF excimer laser (20 ns pulse width). The HAZ was also reduced by using high peak power DUV light source.
The material processing by DUV laser region has been required for wide band gap material and precise hole and groove in DUV region. It is still very hard to get high power solid-state lasers in this spectral region especially below 300 nm. The rare-gas halide excimer lasers are only the solution, and now the time has come to examine the new applications of material processing with DUV excimer lasers. We have developed several types of DUV excimer lasers. One of them is a high power 248 nm excimer laser with free spectrum operation. The 248 nm excimer laser can be applied to the process of organic materials for semiconductor packages. We are developing the processing of organic materials by 248 nm excimer laser. The organic materials are processed directly by the irradiation using the mask by 248 nm excimer laser. In this method, it is possible to process fine patterns and various patterns. We processed using Ajinomoto build-up films (ABF) as organic material. The types of ABF were GX92, GX-T31 and GY50, and their thickness was 10 μm. We confirmed that it is possible to process via of 5 μm or less in build-up film. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the L/S pattern can be processed. We will report the result of processing organic materials with 248 nm excimer laser.
KEYWORDS: Solid state lasers, Excimer lasers, Laser systems engineering, Deep ultraviolet, Optical amplifiers, Amplifiers, Crystals, High power lasers, Semiconducting wafers, Fiber amplifiers
We have been developing a hybrid 193 nm ArF laser system that consists of a solid state seeding laser and an ArF excimer laser amplifier for power-boosting. The solid state laser consists of an Yb-fiber-solid hybrid laser system and an Er-fiber laser system as fundamentals, and one LBO and three CLBO crystals for frequency conversion. In an ArF power amplifier, the seed laser passes through the ArF gain media three times, and an average power of 110 W is obtained. As a demonstration of the potential applications of the laser, an interference exposure test is performed.
The high coherent, high power 193-nm ArF lasers are useful for interference lithography and microprosessing applications. In order to achieve high coherence ArF lasers, we have been developing a high coherence 193 nm solid state laser for the seeding to a high power ArF laser. We used the sum frequency mixing of the fourth harmonic (FH) of a 904-nm Ti:sapphire laser with a Nd:YVO4 laser (1342 nm) to generate 193-nm light. The laser system consists of a single-mode Ti:sapphire oscillator seeded by a 904-nm external cavity laser diode, a Pockels cell, a 6-pass amplifier, a 4-pass amplifier, a 2-pass amplifier and a wavelength conversion stage. The required repetition rate of 6 kHz corresponding to the ArF laser, along with a low gain at 904 nm induces serious thermal lens effects; extremely short focal lengths of the order of cm and bi-foci in the vertical and horizontal directions. From the analysis of thermal lens depending on pump intensity, we successfully compensated the thermal lens by dividing a 527-nm pump power with 15, 25 and 28 W to 3-stage amplifiers with even passes, resulting in the output power above 10W with a nearly diffraction limited beam. This 904-nm output was converted to 3.8 W in the second harmonic by LBO, 0.5 W in FH by BBO sequentially. Finally the output power of 230 mW was obtained at 193 nm by mixing the FH with a 1342-nm light in CLBO.
ArF immersion technology is spotlighted as the enabling technology for the 45nm node and beyond. Recently, double
exposure technology is also considered as a possible candidate for the 32nm node and beyond. We have already released
an injection lock ArF excimer laser, the GT61A (60W/6kHz/10mJ/0.30pm) with ultra line-narrowed spectrum and
stabilized spectrum performance for immersion lithography tools with N.A.>1.3, and we have been monitoring the field
reliability data of our lasers used in the ArF immersion segment since Q4 2006.
In this report we show field reliability data of our GigaTwin series - twin chamber ArF laser products. GigaTwin series
have high reliability. The availability that exceeds 99.5% proves the reliability of the GigaTwin series.
We have developed tunable and high power injection-lock ArF excimer laser for double patterning, GT62A
(Max90W/6000Hz/Tunable power with 10-15mJ/0.30pm (E95)) based on the GigaTwin platform. A number of
innovative and unique technologies are implemented on GT62A.
- Support the latest illumination optical system
- Support E95 stability and adjustability
- Reduce total cost (Cost of Consumables, Cost of Downtime and Cost of Energy & Environment)
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