Laser amplifier

RFopticaldigital

EUV lithography – enabling progress in the digital era EUV lithography wins the race for the microchip production method of the future. For several years, the semi-conductor industry was searching for a cost-efficient way – and a way which had the potential for mass-scale production – to enable even smaller structures to be exposed on silicon wafers. ASML, Zeiss and TRUMPF joined forces and developed a technology to produce extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometres for industrial use: in a vacuum chamber, a droplet generator fires 50,000 miniscule droplets of tin per second. Each of these droplets is hit by one of the 50,000 laser pulses and turned into plasma. This is how EUV light is produced, which is then directed onto the wafers to be exposed by a mirror. The laser pulse for plasma radiation is generated by a pulsable CO2 laser system developed by TRUMPF – the TRUMPF Laser Amplifier. From just a few watts to 40 kilowatts The TRUMPF Laser Amplifier sequentially intensifies a laser pulse by more than 10,000 times. Efficient and reliable By emitting a pre pulse and main pulse, the complete power of the Laser Amplifier can be transferred to the tin droplet. New application for CO2 laser At the core of the high-power laser system is a CO2 laser with continuous wave operation. TRUMPF is thus creating a new application for the technology. Large network of specialists Over their years of close collaboration, TRUMPF, ASML and ZEISS have brought EUV technology to industrial maturity.