<story><title>Global Foundries discloses 7nm process detail</title><url>https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/6879-exclusive-globalfoundries-discloses-7nm-process-detail.html?utm_content=buffere2e76&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>13of40</author><text>I know nothing about this area, so this is kind of an ELI5 question, but:  If the wavelength of the light defines the &lt;i&gt;lower&lt;/i&gt; limit of detail size, why can&amp;#x27;t they switch to actual x-rays, which we already seem to be really good at producing?</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>Yet another fab pushing deep ultraviolet lithography as far as it will go for 7nm, rather than going to &amp;quot;extreme ultraviolet&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Extreme ultraviolet&amp;quot; is really soft X-rays.  The &amp;quot;light source&amp;quot; is either a synchrotron, or an incredible kludge where droplets of tin are vaporized by lasers.  They also produce totally incoherent light, while the ordinary processes use lasers producing coherent light, which focuses better.&lt;p&gt;Deep ultraviolet light source: [1] Little box.&lt;p&gt;Extreme ultraviolet light source: [2] Two floors of equipment.&lt;p&gt;Nobody really wants to go to EUV with the existing sources. The industry hopes for an EUV source that isn&amp;#x27;t insanely expensive, incoherent, dim, and an operational headache. But there&amp;#x27;s nothing better coming along in the near term. Intel and Samsung have chosen to build EUV fabs, to be ready in 2019, maybe. Everybody else is trying hard not to.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oxxius.com&amp;#x2F;LUV-series-266nm-280nm-CW-laser&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oxxius.com&amp;#x2F;LUV-series-266nm-280nm-CW-laser&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.anandtech.com&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;10097&amp;#x2F;euv-lithography-makes-good-progress-still-not-ready-for-prime-time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.anandtech.com&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;10097&amp;#x2F;euv-lithography-makes-go...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sbierwagen</author><text>Not my field, but I&amp;#x27;d guess that one problem is that the hotter the photon, the better it is at penetrating matter. EUV photomasks are already a real pain in the butt to make[1], and making them work for shorter wavelengths probably introduces even more excitingly intractable engineering problems.&lt;p&gt;1: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nist.gov&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;pml&amp;#x2F;div683&amp;#x2F;conference&amp;#x2F;Rice_2011.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nist.gov&amp;#x2F;sites&amp;#x2F;default&amp;#x2F;files&amp;#x2F;documents&amp;#x2F;pml&amp;#x2F;div68...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Global Foundries discloses 7nm process detail</title><url>https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/6879-exclusive-globalfoundries-discloses-7nm-process-detail.html?utm_content=buffere2e76&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>13of40</author><text>I know nothing about this area, so this is kind of an ELI5 question, but:  If the wavelength of the light defines the &lt;i&gt;lower&lt;/i&gt; limit of detail size, why can&amp;#x27;t they switch to actual x-rays, which we already seem to be really good at producing?</text></item><item><author>Animats</author><text>Yet another fab pushing deep ultraviolet lithography as far as it will go for 7nm, rather than going to &amp;quot;extreme ultraviolet&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;Extreme ultraviolet&amp;quot; is really soft X-rays.  The &amp;quot;light source&amp;quot; is either a synchrotron, or an incredible kludge where droplets of tin are vaporized by lasers.  They also produce totally incoherent light, while the ordinary processes use lasers producing coherent light, which focuses better.&lt;p&gt;Deep ultraviolet light source: [1] Little box.&lt;p&gt;Extreme ultraviolet light source: [2] Two floors of equipment.&lt;p&gt;Nobody really wants to go to EUV with the existing sources. The industry hopes for an EUV source that isn&amp;#x27;t insanely expensive, incoherent, dim, and an operational headache. But there&amp;#x27;s nothing better coming along in the near term. Intel and Samsung have chosen to build EUV fabs, to be ready in 2019, maybe. Everybody else is trying hard not to.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oxxius.com&amp;#x2F;LUV-series-266nm-280nm-CW-laser&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.oxxius.com&amp;#x2F;LUV-series-266nm-280nm-CW-laser&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.anandtech.com&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;10097&amp;#x2F;euv-lithography-makes-good-progress-still-not-ready-for-prime-time&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.anandtech.com&amp;#x2F;show&amp;#x2F;10097&amp;#x2F;euv-lithography-makes-go...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>If you go too far into the X-ray range, the high-energy X-ray photons penetrate the masks.</text></comment>