Press release
Applied Materials’ Innovative Pattern-Shaping Technology Reduces the Cost, Complexity and Environmental Impact of Advanced Chip Manufacturing
The new Centura® Sculpta® patterning system provides a simpler, faster and more cost-effective alternative to EUV double patterning SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb.
About this update from Applied Materials, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"The new Centura® Sculpta® patterning system provides a simpler, faster and more cost-effective alternative to EUV double patterning SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 28, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Materials, Inc. today unveiled a breakthrough in patterning technology that allows chipmakers to create high-performance transistors and interconnect wiring with fewer EUV lithography steps, thereby lowering the cost, complexity and environmental impact of advanced chipmaking. Customers increasingly use EUV double patterning to print chip features smaller than the resolution limits of EUV to optimize chip area and cost. Using EUV double patterning, chipmakers split a high-density pattern in half and produce two masks that adhere to the resolution limits of EUV. Both halves of the pattern are combined on intermediate patterning films and then etched into the wafer. While double patterning is effective at increasing feature density, it adds design and patterning complexity along with process steps that consume time, energy, materials and water – and increase the cost of wafer fabs and wafer production. Introducing the Applied Materials Centura® Sculpta® Patterning System To help chipmakers continue shrinking designs without the added cost, complexity, and energy and materials consumption of EUV double patterning, Applied Materials worked closely with leading customers to develop the Centura Sculpta patterning system. Chipmakers can now print a single EUV pattern and then use the Sculpta system to elongate the shapes in any chosen direction to reduce the space between features and increase pattern density. Because the final pattern is created from a single mask, design cost and complexity are reduced, and the yield risk from double-patterning alignment errors is eliminated. EUV double patterning requires a number of added manufacturing process steps that generally include CVD patterning film deposition, CMP cleaning, photoresist deposition and removal, EUV lithography, eBeam metrology, patterning film etching and wafer cleaning. For each EUV double patterning sequence it replaces, the Sculpta system can provide chipmakers with: Capital cost savings of approximately $250 million per 100K wafer starts per month of production capacityManufacturing cost savings of approximately $50 per waferEnergy savings of more than 15 kwh per waferDirect gre...