Applied Materials introduces new tech to complement ASML’s lithography equipment

Centura Sculpta is a patterning system designed to reduce the costs and complexity of the lithography process, in which patterns are etched into the wafer from a photomask.

Lee Gil-yong, head of technology marketing and strategy at Applied Materials Korea speaks during an online press conference held Monday [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Applied Materials introduced new technologies to complement ASML’s lithography equipment, aimed at speeding up semiconductor manufacturing and improving yields.

Applied Materials Korea on Monday held an online conference to present its latest semiconductor patterning technologies.

First introduced in February by the Santa Clara, California-based chip equipment maker, Centura Sculpta is a patterning system designed to reduce the costs and complexity of the lithography process, in which patterns are etched into the wafer from a photomask.

As ASML’s lithography machine using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) is essential in producing advanced semiconductors, Applied Materials’ new system is expected to reduce reliance on the Dutch company, which is the world’s sole supplier of EUV machines.

“The Centura Sculpta patterning system will not replace the EUV equipment itself, but will complement it,” said Lee Gil-yong, head of technology marketing and strategy at Applied Materials Korea during the press conference.

Applied Materials' target customer is "every device manufacturer using EUV equipment," said Lee, without specifying any names of potential clients.

In the double patterning step, chipmakers split a pattern in half and produced two simpler masks to make them fit the resolution limits of the EUV machine.

The adoption of Centura Sculpta could simplify the double patterning into a single process by elongating the shapes of a print on a single mask, reducing costs, complexity of the process, environmental impact as well as yield risks, according to the company.

“The Sculpta patterning system is the first of its kind, and we went through 6 years of development for the technology, so we believe that it wouldn’t be easy for our competitors in the industry to come up with a similar product in the near future,” Lee added.

Also introduced that day was Applied Materials’ VeritySEM10 system, used in measuring the critical dimensions of patterns transferred to a photoresist.

Lee Seok-woo, head of the company's imaging and process control technology, said that "the device is currently being supplied to major logic semiconductor companies and foundries, as well as memory chipmakers, including those in Korea."

Chipmakers use equipment called critical dimension-scanning electron microscopes (CD-SEMs) for sub-nanometer measurements during a lithography process. The CD-SEMs help ensure the patterns are precisely transferred before being etched onto the silicon wafers.

The latest VeritySEM10 system has a scan rate 30 percent faster than the previous CD-SEMs and twice the resolution, which enables process and improves yield, explained Applied Materials.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]