We have developed a 157-nm coherent light source by two-photon resonant four-wave mixing in Xe, with two tunable single-mode 1-kHz Ti:sapphire laser systems at 768 and 681 nm. This light source has been developed to determine the instrumental function of a vacuum ultraviolet spectrometer and to evaluate optical designs for ultra-line-narrowed F(2) laser lithography. The spectral linewidth of the source was less than 0.008 pm (FWHM), with an average power of 0.6 mW.

We have succeeded in the commercialization of the world's first 2 kHz ArF excimer laser for microlithography application. The ArF laser is expected to be the light source for the DUV lithography tools for sub-0. 13 micron geometry semiconductor production. In this paper, we present the performance and advanced technologies of the newest model of the ArF excimer laser, which achieves 10 W of output power with 0.5 pm bandwidth at 2 kHz. The pulse-to-pulse energy stability, 3 sigma is less than 1 0 % and integrated energy stability is within +-O.3 % (50 pulses). The durability performance is extended to 5 billion pulses, which provides affordable CoO for volume production.

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We have succeeded in the development of the ArF excimer laser with high performance and durability, by researching and developing of the spectral measurement and gas control technologies, laser chamber with radio frequency preionizer, the high repetition rate solid state pulse power module and the optimized highly durable optical module.As regards spectral measurement technologies, the true instrumental function of a monitor etalon have been measured by our developed 193nm coherent light source. Spectrum of ArF laser could be obtained precisely by deconvolution performed using the covolved spectrum of the ArF laser and the measured instrumental function ofthe monitor etalon.As for gas control technologies, the influence of impurities given to the ArF laser performance was bigger about 5-20 times compared with the KrF one. And we have paid attention that low concentration Xe gas has effect to the triple output energy. The durability test of 2 billion pulses has been done for the first time in the world. The developed ArF laser kept the integrated energy stability less than +-O.6% (80 pulses window) and spectral band.. width of FWHM less than 0.8 pm. The result showed, developed laser has an enough performance for lithography even after the pulse number exceeds 2 billion pulses.

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