If EUV lithography is to succeed, infrastructure gaps will need to be addressed forthwith. The lack of inspection tools for EUV masks and substrates constitutes one such gap, now recognized as a priority by SEMATECH. At the OSA/APS Frontiers in Optics (FiO) meeting held in San Jose, October 11-15, Carmen Menoni of Colorado State University […]

Founded in 1984 with Flemish government support, IMEC has reached 25 years. To celebrate the organization’s accomplishments, BetaSights joined other industry media outlets attending a research review event in beautiful Leuven, Belgium. From 1999 to 2009 has been the “phase of international breakthrough” as described by current president Luc Van den hove. Working with OEMs […]

KLA-Tencor recently announced its long awaited 193nm reticle defect inspection tool, the Teron 600. Wafer scanners adopted 193nm exposure wavelength years ago in order to shrink circuit features below the resolution limit set by the previous (248nm) wavelength, roughly 130nm. The photomasks used in those tools, however, continued to be inspected at 257nm, in spite […]