December 1, 2004

Gigaphoton Introduces Its New "GT40A" Laser
First Injection-locking ArF Excimer Laser in the Industry

SEMICON JAPAN, Chiba, Japan, December 1, 2004 - Gigaphoton Inc. (Headquarters: Oyama-shi, Tochigi-ken, Japan; President and Representative Director: Dr. Yuji Watanabe, http://www.gigaphoton.com/), a major lithography light source manufacture for the global semiconductor industry, today announced that it has developed the "GT40A," an ArF (Argon Fluoride) excimer laser with emission wavelength of 193 nm and repetition rate of 4000 Hz. The "GT40A" is the world's first mass-production lithography light source for the 65-nm or below technology node to be mounted with an injection-locking resonator. At present, the "GT40A" is under evaluation, including integration at lithography tool manufacturers. Gigaphoton plans to market the "GT40A" in the middle of 2005.

In semiconductor manufacturing today, the wafer diameter is expanding from 200 mm to 300 mm to further enhance productivity. For the manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices, in order to meet the stringent requirements of ultra-fine circuit patterns, ArF excimer lasers have replaced KrF (Krypton Fluoride) excimer lasers as the mainstream of lithography light sources.

To meet the requirements of today's market, Gigaphoton developed and marketed ArF excimer lasers, the "G41A/42A" series, that feature superior DUV (deep ultra-violet) performance by allowing exposure of 0.10-ｵm geometries or below at lower running cost. In order to meet the requirements of even finer patterns, Gigaphoton has now developed the new "GT40A" ArF excimer laser to allow exposure of 65-nm geometries or below for next-generation devices.

Main Features

1. An injection-locking resonator, a first in the industry for a mass-production model
   The "GT40A" is the industry’s first mass-production model to use injection-locking technology.* It allows highly stable emission of a DUV beam with high output of 45 W (more than double of the conventional model) and spectral bandwidth of 0.2 picometer (pm) for FWHM and 0.5 picometer for E95, the highest bandwidth level in the industry.
   
   * Injection-locking technology injects a low-output laser beam (master), which is emitted after bring tuned to an extremely narrow spectral bandwidth, into the laser resonator (amplifier) and amplifies it with laser resonation. This technology allows simultaneous maintenance of a narrower spectral bandwidth and higher output, something that is difficult to achieve with conventional technologies.
   
   
2. Greatly reduced peak energy of laser pulse to reduce damage to the lithography tool optics
   
   
3. A newly developed self-diagnosis function and great improvement in ease of module replacement and serviceability, thereby achieving high reliability and high uptime essential to semiconductor factories
   

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About Gigaphoton
Gigaphoton Inc. was founded in 2000 as a joint venture of Komatsu Ltd., the world’s No. 2 construction machinery manufacturer, and Ushio Inc., the world’s No. 1 lithography lamp manufacturer. Since then, Gigaphoton has been developing and marketing user-friendly, highly innovative laser light sources to make a great contribution to lithography technology to meet the stringent requirements of the ultra-fine circuit patterns required for the Gigabit era, and delivering them to major lithography tool suppliers in the global semiconductor industry. Gigaphoton has already grown to dominate the Asian market including Japan with a large number of installed bases of most of major semiconductor device manufacturers in this region as the No.2 excimer laser light source manufacturer in the world, and continues to enjoy rapid growth in the US and European markets.

The company name and logo are the trademarks of Gigaphoton, Inc. The content of this release may be changed without prior notice. Gigaphoton shall not be liable for updating or announcing a correction if the content of this release is changed for any reason in the future.

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