10GHz Processors and Ultraviolet Lithography

hoyosa writes "This article on zd-net reports that Extreme Ultraviolet LLC has built the first ultraviolet lithography stand for manufacturing processors. Will this make silicone obsolete? " Some interesting bits in there. Also "Soon" means we won't see actual chips until oh, say 2005, so don't hold your breath or anything.

Comments

Moore's law

[Anonymous Coward]

Moore's Law, formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors a chip can hold will double every 18 to 24 months, as transistor size shrinks. More transistors, which switch off and on to represent binary data, lead to a corresponding leap in performance.

The lithography technique now used, called deep ultraviolet, will suffice for one or two more generations of manufacturing processes, down to chip features the size of 100 nanometers, or one-tenth of a micron. Chipmakers are working on switching to 0.13-micron processes.

As chipmakers reduce sizes below 100 nanometers, a new lithography technology will be needed--because as chip features decrease in size, the wavelength of light used in the lithography process must also be decreased. Deep ultraviolet lithography uses a wavelength of 240 nanometers. EUV uses a much shorter wavelength.

Without a next-generation lithography technology like EUV, chip manufacturers, including AMD and Intel, would hit a wall in 2004 or 2005, when they would be unable to produce faster chips.

Huh?

[Bruce Perens]

Why would ultraviolet lithography make silicone obsolete :-)

Would not UV lithography work on silicon?

Bruce

Does NOT mean silicon is obsolete.

[mycr0ft]

That's right. It doesn't mean silicon is obsolete.
It does mean that EUV photomask aligners and photoresist technology can now handle the sorter wavelength extreme UV and therefore make smaller devices.
-- Mycr0ft