Japan’s Canon Inc. has shipped a nano-imprint lithography platform for semiconductor manufacturing – the FPA1200NZ2C – to the Texas Institute for Electronics, meeting expectations of a 2024 delivery.
Canon is a volume producer of KrF and i-line optical lithography machines but nano-imprint lithography (NIL) is broadly applicable and is a potential alternative to leading-edge extreme ultra-violet (EUV) lithography at much less cost.
A NIL system defines chips by stamping out photoresist patterns. Canon’s FPA-1200NZ2C NIL system for 300mm wafers enables patterning with a minimum linewidth of 14nm, approximately equivalent to the 5nm manufacturing node. Further improvement of mask technology will take NIL to a minimum linewidth of 10nm corresponding to the 2nm node, according to Canon.
Because the NIL circuit pattern transfer process does not go through an optical mechanism, fine circuit patterns on the mask can be faithfully reproduced on the wafer avoiding the need for optical pattern correction (OPC) which is a complex and computer intensive process that is being addressed increasingly with AI techniques.
This FPA-1200NZ2C will be used at the Texas Institute for Electronics for the research and development of advanced semiconductors and production of prototypes, Canon said.
The Texas Institute for Electronics is a semiconductor consortium which was founded in 2021 and is supported by The University of Texas at Austin. It consists of state and local governments, semiconductor companies, national research institutions and other entities. Ut provides open access to semiconductor research and development initiatives and prototyping facilities in order to help solve issues related to advanced semiconductor technology, including advanced packaging technology.
