EUV lithography development in Europe: present status and perspectives

According to the ISMT roadmap, Extreme Ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) is the most promising technology to reach the 45-nm node for industrial production and to satisfy the famous law of Moore beyond 2007. Already in 1998 the first European EUVL project (EUCLIDES) has been launched under the leadership of ASM Lithography. Shortly after that in 1999, the national R&D program PREUVE started in France to improve EUVL related technologies and to build the first experimental lithography bench (BEL) in Europe. Finally, in 2001, the main European industrial companies as well as academic and national laboratories have federated within the important MEDEA+ effort to overcome the main technological challenges and to industrialize EUVL in time. Indeed, one of the most important challenges of EUVL concerns the achievement of very powerful, clean and reliable sources. The present paper will give the current state of European EUVL source technology and an overview of the different approaches. Main results are reviewed and the remaining challenges are discussed.