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The technological challenges that have been overcome to make extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) a reality have been enormous 1 . This vacuum driven technology poses significant purity challenges for the gases employed for purging and cleaning the scanner EUV chamber and source. Hydrogen, nitrogen, argon and ultra-high purity compressed dry air (UHPCDA) are the most common gases utilized at the scanner and source level. Purity requirements are tighter than for previous technology node tools. In addition, specifically for hydrogen, EUV tool users are facing not only gas purity challenges but also the need for safe disposal of the hydrogen at the tool outlet. Recovery, reuse or recycling strategies could mitigate the disposal process and reduce the overall tool cost of operation. This paper will review the types of purification technologies that are currently available to generate high purity hydrogen suitable for EUV applications. Advantages and disadvantages of each purification technology will be presented. Guidelines on how to select the most appropriate technology for each application and experimental conditions will be presented. A discussion of the most common approaches utilized at the facility level to operate EUV tools along with possible hydrogen recovery strategies will also be reported.

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Assessing molecular contamination (MC) at part-per-billion (ppbV) or part-per-trillion volume (pptV) levels in cleanroom air and purge gas lines is essential to protect lithography and metrology tools optics and components. Current lithography and metrology tool manufacturer's specifications require testing of some contaminants down to single digit pptV levels. Ideally this analysis would be performed with an on-line analyzer (capable of providing almost instant results): the best analyzers currently available are only capable of providing 100 pptV detection. Liquid impinger sampling has been the dominant sample collection method for sub ppbV acidic and basic MC analysis. Impinger sampling suffers from some inherent problems that can dramatically reduce the collection efficiency such as analyte solubility and evaporative losses. An innovative solid-state trapping technology has been recently developed by SAES Pure Gas along with the CollectTorr sampling system. NIST traceable gas phase standards have been used to compare the collection efficiency of the traditional impinger technology to that of the solid state trapping method. Results varied greatly for the different acid gases with sulfur dioxide showing comparable collection efficiencies while hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid showed much lower recoveries in the impingers than the solid-state traps. Ammonia collection efficiencies were slightly higher for the solid state traps and were improved in the impingers when an acidified solution was used as the collection media. The use of solid-state traps, besides being much simpler from both the handling and logistical stand point, eliminates the analyte solubility and evaporation problems frequently seen with the impinger sampling.

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