Zplasma

About

The semiconductor industry has been working to develop high power extreme ultraviolet light sources for the last twenty years. Light is used to manufacture chips with progressively smaller feature sizes. To continue reducing feature sizes (Moore's law), the industry needs to switch from 193 nm deep ultraviolet (DUV) light sources to 13.5 nm extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light sources. Existing EUV light sources do not produce enough light to support manufacturing, and as a result the switch to EUV has been delayed. Zplasma has developed a new light source technology that meets the critical need for a high power source. Zplasma Stable Discharge Produced Plasma (Stable DPP) is differentiated by the use of Sheared Flow Stabilization (SFS) to stabilize the plasma. This is the first and only technology that stabilizes the plasma used to generate EUV light. Stable plasma results in light pulses ten to one hundred times longer than those produced by the unstable plasmas of other sources. The source uses no tin and has a controlled end to each pulse that does not produce the high-energy debris and molten tin sputtering that have been obstacles for other light sources. We have prototyped and demonstrated the physics of Stable DPP in the lab. Zplasma is seeking funding and development partners to scale our prototype up to the 200 watt light source the industry needs.