Gigaphoton Inc. (President and Representative Director:
Dr. Yuji Watanabe), a major lithography light source manufacturer
for the world semiconductor industry, today announced that
the company has developed and begun marketing of a new product:
the G41K model of KrF (Krypton Fluoride) excimer
laser (emission wavelength of 248 nm, repetition rate of
4000 Hz) as a lithography light source for 100 nm or below.
The G41K is an upgraded model of the G40K 4-kHz
KrF excimer laser, which has consistently proven its high
performance and high uptime in the field since Gigaphoton
brought it to market in 2001. The new G41K features
greatly improved and prolonged life of the laser chamber,
thus achieving a great reduction of running cost.
The G41K achieves high laser-emission efficiency with sufficient
margin by increasing the output of the high-voltage power
supply of the G40K and using a highly efficient line-narrowing
module. In addition, use of the non-contact magnetic levitation
bearing as a standard feature for the gas circulation fan
(cross-flow fan) in the laser chamber allows a great reduction
in contamination caused by chemical impurities generated
from the bearing mechanism of the fan, thereby successfully
minimizing the aging of the laser chamber.
With the above improvement of emission efficiency and durability,
the replacement interval of the laser chamber has been prolonged
from 15 billion pulses to 20 billion pulses. As the laser
chamber accounts for a large percentage of the cost of excimer
laser consumables, this improvement reduces the running cost
by approx. 10% (compared with the conventional model “G40K”).
Major Specifications:
| Wavelength |
248 nm |
| Max. Rep. Rate |
4,000 Hz |
| Pulse Energy |
7.5 mJ |
| Power |
30 W |
| Bandwidth (FWHM) |
< 0.5 pm |
| Bandwidth (E95) |
< 1.4 pm |
| Energy Stability |
±0.3 % |
Module Replacement Intervals:
| Laser Chamber |
20 billion pulses (Improved from 15 billion pulses
of the conventional model G40K) |
| Line-narrowing Module |
20 billion pulses |
| Monitor Module |
20 billion pulses |
| Front Mirror |
20 billion pulses |
| F2 Trap Module |
100 cycles |
|
PRESS
RELEASES (2003)