Semiconductor manufacturing industry has growing concerns over future environmental impacts as fabs expand and new generations of equipment become more powerful. Especially rare gases supply and price are one of prime concerns for operation of high volume manufacturing (HVM) fabs. Over the past year it has come to our attention that Helium and Neon gas supplies could be unstable and become a threat to HVM fabs. To address these concerns, Gigaphoton has implemented various green technologies under its EcoPhoton program. One of the initiatives is GigaTwin deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography laser design which enables highly efficient and stable operation. Under this design laser systems run with 50% less electric energy and gas consumption compared to conventional laser designs. In 2014 we have developed two technologies to further reduce electric energy and gas efficiency. The electric energy reduction technology is called eGRYCOS (enhanced Gigaphoton Recycled Chamber Operation System), and it reduces electric energy by 15% without compromising any of laser performances. eGRYCOS system has a sophisticated gas flow design so that we can reduce cross-flow-fan rotation speed. The gas reduction technology is called eTGM (enhanced Total gas Manager) and it improves gas management system optimizing the gas injection and exhaust amount based on laser performances, resulting in 50% gas savings. The next steps in our roadmap technologies are indicated and we call for potential partners to work with us based on OPEN INNOVATION concept to successfully develop faster and better solutions in all possible areas where green innovation may exist. laser RESOURCE CONSUMPTION BY LITHOGRAPHY LASERSIt has been more than a decade since semiconductor fabs started to implement lithography tools with DUV light sources, and more than 4,000 units have been installed around the world up to now. Every DUV scanner has one DUV laser unit and each one of them requires significant amount of resources to operate. These resources are laser gases, which are mainly Neon, and electric energy. If we take a fab with 10 KrF lasers and 10 ArF lasers, typical annual resource usages are 4 million liters of laser gas, 300 MWh of electric energy and heat management cost. The total estimated operating cost for this fab is $3M every year.Furthermore the issue is not only cost but more importantly it involves natural resources which we all need to try to preserve by best possible ways as our responsibility to the society. Supporting semiconductor high volume manufacturing is our corporate mission and we have determined to provide the fabs with innovative technologies that enable more efficient, more cost effective and greener fab operations. LASER DESIGN CHOICE FOR GREEN SOLUTIONOne of the initiatives is the GigaTwin DUV lithography laser platform based on injection-lock technology [1] . It is the design choice based on two essential needs for high volume manufacturing fabs: efficiency and stability. GigaTwin lasers
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