Eigo Kawakami

Critical issues study of nano-imprint tool for semiconductor volume production

Nano-imprint lithography (NIL) has the capability to transfer very fine patterns. As NIL was described in ITRS Roadmap in 2003, there are plans to apply NIL to semiconductor volume production at 32nm half pitch devices. This study is describes the critical issues of nano-imprint tool for semiconductor volume production. For an exposure tool supplier such as CANON, overlay control is not a critical issue for nano-imprint lithography because CANON has experience from proximity X-ray lithography (PXL). CANON can build an overlay system for nano-imprint tool using the CANON PXLs alignment and chip magnification correction technologies easily. Using our background, we focus on the Cost of Ownership (CoO) considering mold durability and compare NIL to Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) and double patterning (DP) by immersion ArF lithography, to clarify the required specification of NIL from the viewpoint of productivity.