Lithography machine is one of the core equipment in semiconductor manufacturing. Only ASML can develop and produce EUV lithography machine in the world, but it has many technical limitations. Russia plans to develop a new EUV lithography machine, which uses X-rays. technology that can produce chips without a photomask.
The structure and technology of the lithography machine are very complex, but the main factors that determine the resolution of the lithography machine are three points, namely the constant K, the wavelength of the light source and the numerical aperture of the objective lens. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the resolution. The current EUV The lithography machine uses extreme ultraviolet light EUV with a wavelength of 13.5nm, which can be used to manufacture advanced processes of 7nm and below.
Russia's Moscow Institute of Electronic Technology (MIET) has now received 670 million rubles (about 51 million yuan) from the Ministry of Trade and Industry to develop a lithography machine for chip manufacturing, and claims to reach EUV level, but the technical principle Completely different, they developed a maskless X-ray lithography machine based on a synchrotron and/or a plasma source.
The X-ray lithography machine uses X-rays with a wavelength between 0.01nm and 10nm, which is shorter than EUV extreme ultraviolet light, so the lithography resolution is much higher.
In addition, the X-ray lithography machine has an advantage over the current EUV lithography machine, that is, it does not require a photomask, and can directly write lithography, which also saves a lot of money.
Because of these two characteristics, the X-ray lithography machine to be developed by Russia has great advantages, and it is even promoted by the local media as a lithography machine that does not exist in the world. ASML cannot do it.
From the relevant information, it is true that there is no X-ray lithography machine in the world that can achieve mass production, but this technology is not available now. Not only the United States and Europe have studied it, but also domestic scientific research institutions have made X-ray lithography machines. It's just that the efficiency of chip production is incomparable to ASML's lithography machine, and it is only suitable for specific scenarios.
However, Russia has a solid foundation in technologies such as X-ray and plasma, and we can expect how far they can go on the new lithography machine.
