For 110nm advanced devices incorporating an ultra-high N.A. lens Announcing sale of Nikon's Step-and-Repeat Scanning System NSR-S207D

Nikon Corporation (President: SHIMAMURA, Teruo) has developed the Step-and-Repeat Scanning System NSR-S207D, a lens-scanning KrF excimer stepper for mass production of 110nm advanced devices incorporating an ultra-high N.A. lens, and will commence sales in October 2003.

The NSR-S207D incorporates an ultra-high N.A. (N.A.O.82) projection lens, for the KrF excimer laser (248nm wavelength), and uses a newly developed body to significantly improve throughput performance and alignment accuracy.

Sales Summary

Development Background

Progress continues on increasing the density of VLSI chips, the foundation of the IT revolution, and today we are moving to the production of 90 nm rule devices. Nikon released the world's first lens-based scanning system, the NSR-S201A, in April 1995.

Since that time, the Nikon lens-scanning stepper has won consistent praise from semiconductor manufacturers around the world for its performance and reliability, and more than 600 i-line, KrF excimer laser, and ArF excimer laser models have been shipped.

This latest market entry, the NSR-S207D, incorporates a low-aberration projection lens with an ultra-high N.A. (N.A. 0.82), in combination with the KrF excimer laser for mass production of 110nm devices. Furthermore, the newly developed body has dramatically improved alignment accuracy and throughput performance. Throughput is now 115 or more 300mm wafers per hour, and 160 or more 200mm wafers per hour.

Major Performances

Major Characteristics

• Ultra-high N.A. (N.A. 0.82) projection lens

  Incorporates an advanced-performance N.A. 0.82 reduction projection lens in combination with a KrF excimer laser, to achieve mass production of next-generation 110nm devices.

• Higher throughput (processing performance) and improved alignment accuracy

  A newly developed body achieves further improvements in throughput. Throughput is now 160 or more 200mm wafers per hour (an improvement of about 9% over the previous model), and 115 or more 300mm wafers per hour (an improvement of about 31% over the previous model). Alignment accuracy is also up by about 20% over the previous model, achieving a maximum accuracy of 16nm.