Major IC Manufacturer Selects Nikon for 55 nm Production Nikon Ships World's First Production Immersion System

Nikon Corporation (Michio Kariya, President) has shipped the world's first production immersion lithography system. The NSR-S609B, an ArF immersion scanner with the industry's first hyper-NA projection lens of NA 1.07, shipped in January to a major IC manufacturer. The system is targeted for mass production of 55 nm or better memory products and development of 45 nm devices. The NSR-S609B was selected over the competition because of its early market introduction and Nikon's proprietary immersion solutions: Local Fill Technology and Tandem Stage.

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Main Performance Features

A major concern of customers when using immersion lithography is defects. Nikon's proprietary Local Fill Technology is proven to eliminate scanner-induced immersion defects with no bubbles, water spots, or backside wafer contamination. This technology also eliminates evaporation of the immersion fluid, providing a critical advantage in preventing immersion related overlay problems.

To increase throughput, improve accuracy, and enhance the long term stability of the NSR-S609B, Nikon developed a new Tandem Stage that utilizes two stages with different functions to optimize the performance of the tool for immersion lithography. The Exposure Stage is designed to process wafers at high accelerations and scan speeds, while the Calibration Stage is used to calibrate the tool between each wafer exchange. The result is a system with high throughput and improved accuracy. Overlay accuracy has been reduced to 7 nm or less with the Tandem Stage. Additionally, any risk of fluctuations or variations over time in the immersion process is eliminated by frequent calibration checks.