Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 31/12/2024 4:51 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:

Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

ASML offers lithography with a resolution of a couple of nanometres.
They use very deep ultra-violet irradiation - wavelength 13.5nm - to get
there.

https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems

The Nature Photonics paper your puff is based on specifies that their UV
LEDs emit 270nm radiation, twenty times longer, so they aren't in the hunt.

It looks like a useful development, but it isn't going to threaten
ASML's market.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 05:51:39 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

There's another outfit that is serious about going after ASML.

https://www.xlight.com/

The idea is to make a rather large electron accelerator and use that
to build an EUV free-electron laser.

That's all I can say.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On a sunny day (Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:40:03 -0800) it happened john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> wrote in <u8l8njhccc5qutti94ml2bt1m7ogk59nev@4ax.com>:

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 05:51:39 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography
machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

There's another outfit that is serious about going after ASML.

https://www.xlight.com/

The idea is to make a rather large electron accelerator and use that
to build an EUV free-electron laser.

That's all I can say.

I was thinking if you can make an EUV OLED display (say 1600x1000 pixels) you no longer need masks?
All electronics... like TV :-)
Would that work?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> wrote:

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 05:51:39 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless >> photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet
(UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a
lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling
exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays
for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

There's another outfit that is serious about going after ASML.

https://www.xlight.com/

The idea is to make a rather large electron accelerator and use that
to build an EUV free-electron laser.

That's all I can say.

Resin-based 3D printing does amazingly well with bog standard 4k LCDs and
UV LEDs, achieving 20 micron voxel size. Simon uses it for his
automatically generated cradles for test jigs.

I’m a fan.

Chip litho has been better than that since the dawn of the planar process.
You can easily do 5 microns with contact printing, even if you’re a bit cross-eyed.

A lot of the advances in lithography technology are based on using the very high contrast of photo resist to multiply resolution.

You expose using a dose that just exceeds the resist threshold to make a
grid of narrow lines spaced by a bit more than half a wavelength. (Details
vary depending on the numerical aperture and refractive index.)

Then you develop the resist, forming the narrow lines. Repeat once for 2x resolution, or three times for 4x.

Once you have this grating structure, you have to cut the lines in
appropriate places to form the actual circuit outline. This is harder.

Also, of course you have to lay out your circuit so that this highly
restricted geometry can build it. Not too easy, but that’s how chips have been made for many years now.

All of which is very fiddly.

State of the art litho is already using multiple exposures of 13.5 nm
light. That’s a photon energy of 92 eV, which dwarfs the band gap of any material whatsoever. (Diamond is the champ at 5.5 eV.)

Thus there’s no way to make a LED with a wavelength that short.

A super high density array of super small 200-nm LEDs could be pretty
useful if it wasn’t too expensive, but you ain’t doing maskless litho at advanced nodes with that.

There’s a _lot_ of money spent on litho R&D,
So perhaps there’s a way to do it using an array of LEDs and multiple exposures, at least at nodes where 200 nm lithography still works.

Not going to replace advanced light sources and wafer scanners anytime
soon, and anyway the extreme-precision motion and positioning will still be needed.

Might be great for making semi-custom chips based on arrays of gates or transistors.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal Consultant ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 21:39:30 -0000 (UTC), Phil Hobbs <pcdhSpamMeSenseless@electrooptical.net> wrote:

john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com> wrote:

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 05:51:39 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless >>> photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet
(UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a
lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling
exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays
for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

There's another outfit that is serious about going after ASML.

https://www.xlight.com/

The idea is to make a rather large electron accelerator and use that
to build an EUV free-electron laser.

That's all I can say.

Resin-based 3D printing does amazingly well with bog standard 4k LCDs and
UV LEDs, achieving 20 micron voxel size. Simon uses it for his
automatically generated cradles for test jigs.

IÆm a fan.

Chip litho has been better than that since the dawn of the planar process. >You can easily do 5 microns with contact printing, even if youÆre a bit >cross-eyed.

A lot of the advances in lithography technology are based on using the very >high contrast of photo resist to multiply resolution.

You expose using a dose that just exceeds the resist threshold to make a
grid of narrow lines spaced by a bit more than half a wavelength. (Details >vary depending on the numerical aperture and refractive index.)

Then you develop the resist, forming the narrow lines. Repeat once for 2x >resolution, or three times for 4x.

Once you have this grating structure, you have to cut the lines in >appropriate places to form the actual circuit outline. This is harder.

Also, of course you have to lay out your circuit so that this highly >restricted geometry can build it. Not too easy, but thatÆs how chips have >been made for many years now.

All of which is very fiddly.

State of the art litho is already using multiple exposures of 13.5 nm
light. ThatÆs a photon energy of 92 eV, which dwarfs the band gap of any >material whatsoever. (Diamond is the champ at 5.5 eV.)

Thus thereÆs no way to make a LED with a wavelength that short.

A super high density array of super small 200-nm LEDs could be pretty
useful if it wasnÆt too expensive, but you ainÆt doing maskless litho at >advanced nodes with that.

ThereÆs a _lot_ of money spent on litho R&D,
So perhaps thereÆs a way to do it using an array of LEDs and multiple >exposures, at least at nodes where 200 nm lithography still works.

Not going to replace advanced light sources and wafer scanners anytime
soon, and anyway the extreme-precision motion and positioning will still be >needed.

Might be great for making semi-custom chips based on arrays of gates or >transistors.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

I think that some of the first ICs were silk screened.

It should be possible to inkjet some power mosfets or something.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:40:03 -0800, john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>
wrote:

On Tue, 31 Dec 2024 05:51:39 GMT, Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>
wrote:

Engineering researchers develop deep-UV microLED display chips for maskless photolithography
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/12/241230131942.htm
Source:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Summary:
In a breakthrough set to revolutionize the semiconductor industry,
engineers have developed the world's first-of-its-kind deep-ultraviolet (UVC) microLED display array for lithography machines.
This enhanced efficiency UVC microLED has showcased the viability of a lowered cost maskless photolithography
through the provision of adequate light output power density, enabling exposure of photoresist films in a shorter time.

High-Power AlGaN Deep-Ultraviolet Micro-Light-Emitting Diode Displays for Maskless Photolithography
Now everybody and their cat cam make nano nano chips?
End of ASML?
Go short on them?

There's another outfit that is serious about going after ASML.

https://www.xlight.com/

The idea is to make a rather large electron accelerator and use that
to build an EUV free-electron laser.

That's all I can say.

This sounds very interesting. FELs are well understood, but were not
designed or used for IC production. Research only.

ASML did try all manner of deep UV light source approaches, but FELs
didn't make the cut back then; don't know why, but accelerator
technology has advanced since then.

Joe Gwinn

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