The never ending drive for faster and denser IC's has reached a staggering pace and is attributable to the economics of the semiconductor industry and competition among chip manufacturers. This quest may be approached in different ways. A common approach is to continue to push the 248am wavelength lithographic tools. This paper reviews the status of 193nm lithography with respect to its production worthiness, capability and extendibility when compared to 248nm systems.Key issues such as cost of ownership and process maturity are discussed. Analytical results, system analyses and recent lithographic results are presented.Conclusions are offered with respect to the logical timing of the insertion of 193nm lithography tools into semiconductor manufacturing.

As the semiconductor industry accelerates the pace of change, a shift in exposure wavelength from 248 nm to 193 nm becomes inevitable. Correspondingly, the change to a shorter wavelength and the desire to maintain productivity, necessitates a fundamental reassessment of system design approach. Evaluation of resolution and k-factor for a lithographic tool operating at 193 nm and 0.75 numerical aperture indicates that 130 nm node production will be manageable with binary mask, and that performance consistent with 100 nm node requirements and potentially beyond will be achievable with the use of advanced lithographic techniques. This paper reviews the design, system performance analysis and early results for a full-field catadioptric lithography tool operating at numerical apertures up to 0.75 NA.