Holding ~1 nm alignment tolerance over meter-scale distances is hard enough; holding that tolerance dynamically while the waver and mask are moving at a relative speed of several meters per sec is insane. In the time it takes the light to get from the mask to the wafer, the wafer will have moved something like 5 nm. So somewhere in those billion+ lines of code controlling the system there is a correction for the finite speed of light.
It's not moving during exposure. It stops each time. The coarse motor stops, then fine motor adjust, then light strikes. But since the source light consist in laser shooting a tin droplet to vaporise it. All this happens while the droplet is on its way.... Mad !
You realize how precise this operation is when he says "... refractive index of the air, which changed as the stage moved around, it threw off things by as much as ONE NANOmeter, which was UNACCEPTABLE..." that is really crazy!
@@alquinn8576because even a slight change in density of the a ir within the litho stage could change the refractive index of the air. And density can be changed with even the slightest push in any direction
I work in a cleanroom assembling these machines for ASML. We hold tolerances in microns and this video gives a good explanation of just why we do that lol
how much do they pay an hour? I contract guys for like assembling vacuum machines for coating glass and etc and they pay us for the guys around 40 euros an hour.
@@taylorkaplan2614 Tolerances for assembling the machine from X amount of components and the tolerances that the components while working can achieve is a different thing.
It always blows my mind how complex these machines are, how many technologies and innovations that has devoloped over decades to reach this point. Probably the most complex thing humans have ever constructed.
Impressive? Yes! Most high-speed, accurate targeting? Not by a long shot. Take a look at what the LHC has to do at the CMU, ATLAS, and other detectors. They have to shoot atomic nuclei at each other at relativistic speeds and have the computational capabilities to sort through 140Tbits of aftermath data per day. Still - ASML's machines are insanely impressive!
@@vitorlucio1195I’m not quite sure about that. What was impressive about Manhattan and Apollo was the incredibly short timescale. Regardless, the semiconductor industry’s achievements are damn impressive. And I get to work at one of these chip companies 😎
I worked on these tools for 15-16 years at various sites. From. 2500s, 5500s all the way to NXTs. Left ASML in 2018 to live a more peaceful life in the Philippines. Working under pressure to deadlines, to customers watching your every move, I have not regretted my decision. I am out of the rat race. As they say, money isn’t everything
Hear hear! I worked for Canon USA several years. Worked up to the 248nm steppers and the very beginning of the 193nm step and scan. I left because these tools were getting too complex and got tired of field service travel. I’m still in the industry but with an analog device company which uses 365nm i-line like the i1 shown in the video and their next gen air bearing stage models, all 90’s technology. Still complex but relaxed specifications, the biggest headache is finding reliable parts.
@love2fly558, yep. I actually started on those i lines at ASML, single stage steppers. Definitely, a lot less complex, albeit only slightly. Then worked my way up to those monstrous 193nm Twinscan NXTs in OR. I don’t miss any of it, honestly. I just do mostly honey-do lists here in the blistering heat of the Philippines. It’s way better than being watched like a hawk by a new PhD grad who has no idea how things work in reality, LOL.
Yeap, I remember hearing about the Twinscan when I was in Canon USA; back when ASML, Canon and Nikon were always competing for number 1. I got lucky with this analog company. The fab is small and I’m the only one that knows the steppers well. I set the qualification tests for production, set the specification limits and design my own PMs. I don’t go to meetings and managment pretty much leaves me alone. It is a double edged knife, because they keep texting me for help during my weeklong vacations.
Hahaha. I hear your pain brother. When it was still pagers, I hated it as well being called on my days off. I actually was in the northeast back early 2000s working remotely. I dreaded that company pager. Then came the cell phones and of course, it became a direct call from management. Good for you though, smaller fabs are actually the best. As long as everything is running, you won’t be bugged. Big customers are always the biggest PIAs. I was at TriQuint once too, one of the guys who kept the place afloat. They pretty much kept their distance because only the FSEs knew how to keep the steppers working. Anyway, for me, I think I am too old to go back to the semiconductor business. Can’t crawl under those tools anymore without getting vertigo hahaha. It’s a young man’s game now. Take care
The hydraulic backstory of early ASML is really fascinating. Little historical lessons like the chip manufactures rejecting ASML equipment make for powerful stories to understand and explain decisions you'll need to make in the future. Great video!
The technology behind this is (to say at least) insane. My dad worked at RIZ semiconductors in Yugoslavia, they made transistors and ICs. He regularly talks about his days working there and how interesting and good it was. He was very sad when company shut down before the war and he never recovered from it. I can imagine how happy he would be if they had something like this in factory.
I remember the first time when I asked my parents "What's this old ruin here?", and when my mum told me that they used to make microchips here I of course had no idea what that is at a time, not until about a decade later, and nowadays... it really hurts whenever I remember that our country no longer makes ICs.
Fun fact: I grew up in the city of Eindhoven and the Philips Natlab lays in the cities district called “Strijp” when Philips moved out of Eindhoven with all their manufacturing facilities this part of town became like a ghost town. The municipality of Eindhoven invested heavily in the district for the past 10 years or so and it now houses many restaurants, cafes and foodhalls. The old Philips factories have been converted into apartments, offices spaces, start-ups and the district really became a new hotspot for the city.
The old Natlab is the current High Tech Campus, the buildings still exist and are still being used, not sure where the association with Strijp comes from
I worked in Strijp for a while for a start-up. Cool place, though far to industrial and urban (and southern) for my taste and hilarious to see burgerking and coke sponsor the sportsday for elementary school on the fields next to the building. Reminded me of seeing smoking sponsorships for sprint matches back when advertisement of smoking was still a thing. For me Strijp had a really mismatched feeling with it being somewhat rundown and highly industrial while being rebuild and reused to be "hip" and approachable. Like a part of town that has an identity crisis, maybe that has changed in the last 5/6-ish years. Still miss the greek food from there, that was one of the best take-away greek food I ever had.
Has ASML moved away from Veldhoven? I know people often interchange Eindhoven and Veldhoven when referring to ASML's location, where are they now located? Could use a glass of Dommelsch.
I worked with a former ASML mechanical engineer for a while. He was of the opinion that the ASML stage is a masterpiece that has held up for decades and generations of machines, and he obsessed over specifications I have never heard of. Fantastic stuff
So fun to see the ASML videos. It is interesting to see what has and has not come passed the walls of our company. As someone that works in their learning department these videos are great inspiration. Keep it up!
@@halavich9672 But they get their money by giving this man the ability watch his stories. Without giving the man access to his stories, the man wouldn't give them his money and without the mans money there wouldn't be profits.
The thing that really makes my head 🤯is that the wafer and reticle are in motion during the exposure. They move opposite directions with a tiny slit between them such that only a narrow line of the image is projected onto the wafer at a time. The relative motion of the two needs to match exactly so the reticle image lines up with the correct part of the wafer. So that crazy 1nm overlay spec that you were probably thinking is a "line up and hold it still within 1nm" is actually "drive the wafer and reticle in opposite directions while accelerating at 20Gs and do not allow the speed of either the reticle or wafer to deviate by more than 1nm from it's predicted x or y location at any point along the path."
I love your litho videos bro I’ve seen everyone at least 5 times. Your videos are the only ones I have found that go into great detail about every process and very easy to understand. This semiconductor field just fascinating and boggles my mind
Correction on your throughput statement at 10:06. 125 wafers per hour is about two wafers per minute, not one wafer every two minutes. This isn't the only time you make this error in this video.
I've designed and built quite a few motion systems for this industry. This is a great summary, thank you! I love your videos, first time commenting, just had to say it!
I found this so interesting! Moving 15kg with nanometer precision in 6 degrees of freedom with about 20g of acceleration is just extremely impressive! Not to mention training all the sharks for the laser metrology job.
It’s always fascinating to realise that to make a newer, better version of a tool, it’s usually necessary to use the previous iteration tool. Example, to manufacture a lathe we need a lathe. To create a new version of a compiler software, we need the previous version of the compiler. To create a new lithography machine we need a previous lithography machine that produced parts for it
Just this last year we got rid of two new-to-us pas 5500 ASML steppers. They were used as initial process development demonstrators and have been replaced by much newer double-sided alignment capable machines. Good luck to the next folks who find those 5500s as new-to-them.
I thought it was funny that the air bearings involve the wafers “floating” on a granite slab. All these wicked complicated polymers and materials and chemicals, and they use a rock to glide the wafers around
Great content. I learned a lot about steppers and scanners I didn’t know here. However, at around 2:00, i'm not sure I follow what you mean by: “In the early days of the semiconductor industry, the whole mask contained the whole design. But as the designs got more complicated, the industry started using ‘reticles’, which represent a portion of the whole chip design.” “The whole mask contained the whole design” makes it sound like early processes only required a single mask, which as far as I know has never been true. The 1971 10um process required 6 masks, and earlier processes would still have required multiple masks at least for active areas, gates, and interconnects. Or, the other way to interpret what you said here is, I think, that on early processes, a single mask was able to expose an entire WAFER in one shot. This was possible when wafers were small and masks were large, and was generally available, I believe, through 4” (100mm) wafers that were in use through the 1970s. The entire wafer could be imaged on a single mask (one mask per layer), including multiple instances of the chip design that was being created, for as many chips that would fit on a 4” wafer. But by the time 6” (150mm) wafers came around in the early 1980s, steppers were introduced that required reticles, where each reticle also contained potentially multiple instances of a chip design (one reticle per layer), but then the reticle was stepped across the wafer, such that each reticle only represented a portion of the entire WAFER, as opposed to “a portion of the whole chip design”. Is that what you mean by those statements? Seems like some terminology like wafer, chip, and design are being used interchangeably, when they shouldn't be.
Thank you for the video! We at EVG Group also are very experienced dealing with overlay in the nanometer scale. Mostly doing bonding but also lito. We are also ALWAYS hiring :)
Great video! You described yet another part of the ASML lithography machine that's way more complex than I ever imagined. I was previously aware that they use plasma lensing which already sounded insanely hard to pull off but I didn't know they use magnetic levitation to move the target object, too!
Great to hear non-food channels giving the shout-out to Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I lucked out when somebody recommended it to me a decade ago. I found the commentary track great too!
A small correction: Timestamp 15:02: The wafer stage holds both position module chucks. There's no way the wafer stage has 15 Kg. I don't have an exact number for you but I can tell for sure that only a positioning module (which holds the wafer table) has around 50-70 kg.
09:50 explanation here is incorrect. model name of the machine depends on how the stage is driven and measured. XT : measure stage position by interferometer system + stage is driven by air bearings and linear motors / XT860:KrF, XT1460:ArF, XT1950:ArFi NXT : measure stage position by encoder system + stage moves by magnetic levitation /. NXT870:KrF, NXT1470:ArF, NXT2100:ArFi NXE : use EUV Laser, measure stage position by interferometer system
00:07 ASML machine must position a wafer precisely within a few nanometers for exposure. 02:11 ASML lithography machines use a reticle and objective lens to transfer a chip's design onto a wafer. 04:15 ASML evolved from Philips in the Netherlands 06:17 ASML's TWINSCAN platform enables precise maneuvering and exposure of silicon wafers. 08:16 ASML's TWINSCAN machine revolutionized lithography processes with dual-stage setup 10:06 Lithography machines move wafers with precision and speed. 12:00 ASML lithography machines implemented aerostatic systems to reduce friction and vibrations during wafer stage movements. 14:05 NXT immersion systems have reduced metrology laser travel and improved overlay.
"one last time". NO. PLEASE. You'll always find amazing things to say and this subject/domain is crucial and fascinating so please go on and on and on 🙂
This video is just the tip of the iceberg. I work on the Canon steppers. On the Canons, not only the XY stage needs nanometer accuracy, but there’s also a Z-tilt stage that needs to move the wafer in Z and XY tilt accurately for precise focus. The projection lens need to be free of any imperfections to minimize aberrations. They also have computers, internal networking and much electronics and control systems. Like hrldoliente1 wrote, these tools are very complex and stressful to work on. I settled for an analogy device company that uses 90’s steppers, still complex but relatively relaxed specifications.
There are pneumatic stage working in vacuum, you just need to locally create an air film and remove all the air leak from side using multiple stages of differential pumping. Seems crazy but it works. in fact these are some of the most precise stages that can achieve nm precision without using long-short stroke stacking. Such know-hows stay almost completely in Japan though.
Strange that they don't use piezo actuators in any stage. Piezo actuators are used in atomic force microscopy and they are can move objects within distance of atom.
Have some still working ~1mkm soviet made systems for lithography on 100mm wafers. 1-stage, air floating table driven by 3 lasers for positioning and 4 electromagnets for movement. It's really complicated even at this level of technology. I can't even imagine how scary everything is there right now.
Nice video as always >85% correct. 12:16 EUV does not exist in Air, this dictated switch to vacuum. Neither does eBeam (maskless photolithography...). I find it is easier to manage particles in air with proper airflow and low wear or dedicated particle traps/evacuation techniques. In vacuum you have no medium to manipulate the particles out of the way. You can mostly focus on not creating them in the 1st place.
While its obviously on a totally different scale this discussion reminds me a lot of what I've heard about how core XY 3d printers work, including vibration and harmonic compensation, though they rely much more on the software side to avoid needing such specific mounting, heavy weight, and expensive extremely rigid construction. Given the related concepts at a muxh more approachable scale I thing seeing a video on them from this channel could be very interesting.
There is an unbelievably larger amount of software and all sorts of crazy compensations in the lithography machines (down to frame *creep* compensation lol), there is really no comparing them to a printer, besides the fact that you can find probably find stepper motors in both. Actually Im not sure that you will find steppers in modern litho machines.
A talk about movement in an ASML Lithography Machine, without mentioning ASML's supplier Prodrive Technologies? It is often joked how ASML (and it's campus) is on one side of Eindhoven and Prodrive (and it's campus) on the other side. I visited Prodrive a couple of months ago. They had one of those evenings where they lure in developers and engineers with free pizza and beer and a very interesting talk about how they have developed their own Git for FPGA code, and hope some will apply for a job. And we got a tour. I've seen those FPGA racks and they are indeed very impressive.
Your essays on anything litho tech are my favorite by far...we would love a deep dive on all subsystems! This video was epic! Keep up the excellent work as you have many fans!
i feel like a genius when i wire 1 led and it doesnt fry, the sheer complexity even through the lens of my humunculi level of mind, fucking blows my brain to nano metre sized higss boson sized confetti bits..mhyvtw45rtyujhbvcser
This is really interesting stuff. I'm constantly amazed that ASML essentially have the industry all tied up. This is also the second video I've seen today that talked about interferometers and both said the word very differently 😉
*Summary* *Introduction to Nanoscale Measurements* - 0:02: A human hair is about 50,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide. - 0:07: A virus is roughly 20 to 300 nanometers wide. - 0:10: A fingernail grows about 1 nanometer each second. *ASML Machine Precision and Process* - 0:14: ASML machines position a wafer for DUV or EUV exposure with precision to within a few nanometers. - 0:24: The precision required in these processes inspired the creation of this video. - 0:29: ASML lithography machines use magnets to hold and move a wafer. - 0:38: An optical lithography machine is a $150 million camera using high-energy light to transfer chip designs onto a wafer. - 0:55: The process starts with applying a light-sensitive polymer (photoresist) onto the wafer. - 1:13: Inside the lithography tool are sub-components like the light source, condenser lens, photomask, and objective lens. - 1:22: The illumination system, made of the light source and condenser lens, delivers light to transfer the pattern. - 1:35: ASML's EUV machine uses multiple mirrors for illumination despite significant power reduction. - 1:45: The photomask or reticle containing the chip design pattern is critical in the process. - 2:00: "Reticles" represent portions of the chip design, and the terms "mask" and "reticle" are used interchangeably. - 2:26: The objective lens focuses the light and shrinks the image. - 2:35: The light strikes the resist-coated wafer, creating a 3D relief of the chip's design. *Wafer Handling and Positioning Challenges* - 2:45: The wafer and its stage weigh about 15 kilograms, akin to a Grizzled Tree-Kangaroo. - 3:01: The platform must move wafers quickly and stop precisely during exposure. - 3:19: Good "overlay" is crucial for the correct positioning of pattern layers. - 3:41: Multi-patterning involves multiple exposures to create smaller lines. - 3:48: The wafer stage can accelerate up to 20 G-forces. - 4:06: The system must avoid vibrations during fast movements to maintain precision. *Historical Development of ASML and Philips* - 4:15: ASML evolved from Philips in the Netherlands, with a history in semiconductors. - 4:29: Philips' NatLab developed the pioneering lithography machine, the Silicon Repeater. - 4:34: Philips used "hydraulic linear motors" in early wafer steppers, which were precise but unreliable. - 5:00: Hydraulic system leaks in cleanrooms led to the exploration of electrically-driven systems. - 5:35: Philips' experience in optical disk technologies influenced the development of linear motors for wafer positioning. - 6:25: The shift to 300 millimeter wafers required re-engineered lithography machines. *TWINSCAN Technology* - 6:49: ASML created the TWINSCAN platform for lithography with a dual-stage cycle. - 7:02: TWINSCAN uses electrostatic forces to clamp wafers and reduces direct contact to minimize contamination. - 7:21: Wafers are loaded/unloaded by a robot and start with the measurement stage. - 7:38: The machine aligns the wafer to the reticle for focus and accurate overlay. - 7:50: During stage swaps, the machine can exchange reticles, requiring new alignment. - 8:01: TWINSCAN's wafer movements are coordinated by the Control Architecture Reference Model (CARM). *Engineering Innovations and Challenges* - 8:22: Major engineering challenges in developing the dual stage setup included re-balancing weight and mass, and managing vibrations. - 8:43: Lens and metrology equipment isolated from the main frame using air-bearings to reduce friction. - 8:50: Measurement stage, not exposure, is key to throughput; example given comparing to sushi preparation. - 9:44: TWINSCAN has several product categories: NXE for EUV lithography, NXT with 193-nm ArF DUV light, and XT with 248-nm KrF DUV light. - 10:02: NXE:3350 EUV machine processes 125 wafers an hour, while sophisticated DUV machines can handle 200-300 wafers. - 10:17: Machines have modular builds and are upgradable to meet modern requirements. *Movement Systems and Technological Evolution* - 10:38: Lithography machines have two movement systems: "coarse stage" for transport and "fine stage" for precision. - 11:21: Evolution of precision movement technologies in machines, from mechanical systems to aerostatic systems. - 12:32: ASML used interferometers with lasers for stage positioning, requiring adjustments for air refractive index changes. - 13:17: Transition to magnetic levitation in preparation for EUV lithography in vacuum environments. [ I think they switched to vacuum because EUV is absorbed by air. I think that is a more important reason than particle control. ] link: indico.cern.ch/event/445667/contributions/2562988/attachments/1513761/2361548/MT25_926_Peijnenburg_v5.pdf (see bottom for summary of this VDL presentation) - 13:24: Explanation of magnet technology in wafer stages, including Halbach array for magnetic field optimization. - 14:01: Metrology challenges in immersion systems and improvements in overlay accuracy. - 14:24: Design challenges include dealing with magnetic field interference and cooling requirements. - 14:33: Proposals for single mag-lev systems to handle both short and long-stroke movements. *Conclusion and Software's Role* - 15:02: The extreme precision required by ASML machines is highlighted with a personal anecdote. - 15:21: Significant role of software in lithography machines, with a dramatic increase in CPU, sensors, and lines of source code. *Summary of VDL Presentation* - *In-Chamber Magnet Technology Presentation:* - Authors: Ton Peijnenburg, Aernout Kisteman, Paul Blom - Date: August 29th, 2017 - Event: MT25 - Amsterdam - Presented by VDL Enabling Technologies Group - *VDL Enabling Technologies Group Overview:* - Specializes in semiconductor capital equipment, analytical equipment, and more - Evolved from Philips Machine Factories (1900) - Operations in 5 countries, 9 companies - Facilities: 182,000 m² production area, including 16,000 m² cleanroom - Workforce: 2,200 employees - Services: Contract manufacturing with design and life cycle management - *Photolithography in Semiconductor Manufacturing:* - Focus on wafer stage with specific characteristics: - Scan speed: 1 m/s - Acceleration: 30 m/s² - Overlay accuracy: 2.5 nm - Moving mass: 20 kg - Drive force: 600 N - Position control critical for chip manufacturing - *ASML's Photolithography Tool:* - Emphasizes position control in lithographic equipment - *Actuation for Accurate Positioning:* - Fine actuation: Electrodynamic with 6 DOF, 1 mm stroke, 20 kg moving mass, 0.25 nm position error - Coarse actuation: Planar maglev with 6 DOF, 1 m stroke, 75 kg moving mass, 25 µm position error - *Design of Coarse Coil Module:* - Includes various components like foil coil, power connectors, and cooling covers - Specifications for fine and coarse actuators outlined - *Magnet Plate for Levitation Stage Coarse Motor:* - Dimensions: 2200 x 1300 mm - Weight: Frame approx. 800 kg, magnets 623 kg - Contains various types of magnets - Emphasizes the automated assembly for accuracy and safety - *Summary of Developments:* - Advances driven by the need for fast, accurate wafer and mask positioning - Key aspects: High force density, tight tolerances, automated manufacturing - *Future Development Directions:* - Focus on accuracy, power, and efficiency - Potential improvements: Increased drive voltages, superconducting coils, better heat conduction, mechanical stability - *Acknowledgements:* - Technology development attributed to ongoing work by ASML and its suppliers, including Philips and VDL Enabling Technologies Group - Special thanks to ASML for allowing the use of their material in the presentation. Disclaimer: I used chatgpt4 to summarize the video transcript and one PDF.
@@AABB-px8lc The link of the PDF is shown in the video. It is not mine. I just typed the link into the comment because it is an interesting presentation.
Ok now I discovered that exists a creature called Grizzled Tree-Kangaroo, also interesting to know that its weight is equal to a wafer 🤣🤣 I love the way you sometimes put a joke inside the video like it was a serious argument LOL
I don't see how you would combine fine and rough movement stages. I've been working on a linear motor for some time now, and getting into the fine details is quite interesting. if you have a big mass to move, you need A LOT of energy for high acceleration and precise positioning. While there are many variables which can be tuned, at the end of the day you're limited by the amount of energy you can dump into the coil. because every bit of energy used creates heat in the electronics and the coil itself, which distorts the positioning, and no sensor in the world is accurate enough to measure that through the control circuit itself. the only way to measure the error generated by the heat in the components is with sensors that measure the output - interferometers in this case. however that means that you can only compensate for the error after it has already occurred, which means you have to always accept some error. of course you can run calibrations so you know exactly what movement generates how much heat distortion and create mathematical models for that so you can correct ahead of time but that also only brings you so far and means you have to perfectly control the environment so that everything is perfectly repeatable. so, splitting up the motion stage into two is a simple physical necessity. a smaller stage has less mass that needs to be moved, less heat in that stage that is generated, less distortion and error at the same speeds (to a point that it can also compensate for the errors of the larger stage).
Im not sure what problems you see combining fine and rough movement stages. You are right about the heat causing errors, but temp sensors are used. You are also right about model based compensation, feed forward control is often used, among other lesser known types, and you are right about calibrations and a well controlled environment. Hehehe, all of this is used in combination to achieve the mindbending accuracy. And the main reason for the two stage design is simply the process requirements. Need the wafers to move as fast as possible, but positioned within sub 10 nm. its essentially impossible to produce such a design in a single piece, a lot of math has been done to reach that conclusion.
1.25 billion lines of code are operating these machines? What the actual hell what are they doing with 1.25 billion lines of code in a lithography machine. I truly cannot imagine why that much software is needed.
You probaply realise how much of a marvel the mechanical and optical design is, the control algorithms are just as magical! But yea that is a bit much.
I don't know how the latest machines do it, but when I worked at ASML in 1998 (during the early days of the TwinScan when TwinScan was still called Atlas), the way that the machines avoided vibration was by having some counterweights that (although they weren't mechanically connected) moved around in opposite directions of the reticle stage and wafer stage. In those days, the motion control system ran on a rack of custom-made computers based on Texas Instruments DSP's that controlled the 20+ degrees of freedom all at the same time.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:02 🌐 *ASML lithography machines require extreme precision within nanometer margins for wafer positioning during exposure.* 01:00 🔍 *An optical lithography machine, like ASML's, uses a complex process involving photoresist, illumination, photomask, and objective lens to transfer chip designs onto a wafer.* 02:22 🚧 *Wafer stages in lithography machines must handle heavy wafers, execute rapid movements with nanometer accuracy, and maintain precise overlays to avoid errors.* 03:48 ⚙️ *Inside the machine, the wafer stage can accelerate up to 20 G-forces, demanding stability to prevent vibrations that could impact precision targeting.* 05:12 🏭 *ASML evolved from Philips, transitioning from hydraulic systems to electrically-driven systems, leveraging experience in optical disk technologies.* 06:34 🔄 *ASML's TWINSCAN platform, introduced in the 2000s, revolutionized lithography by incorporating a dual-stage cycle for measurement and exposure.* 09:44 🌐 *TWINSCAN machines, such as NXE for EUV lithography, NXT for 193-nanometer ArF DUV, and XT for 248-nanometer KrF DUV, are designed for diverse customer needs.* 10:42 🛤️ *Lithography machines feature two movement systems: coarse stage for extended range and high speed, and fine stage prioritizing precision over distance.* 12:27 🔍 *Precision movement technologies progressed from mechanical systems to aerostatic systems and eventually to magnetic levitation to meet cleanliness benchmarks.* 13:24 🔧 *ASML uses a complex magnet plate array with over 2,200 magnets for wafer stage positioning, addressing challenges like magnetic interference and cooling.* 15:13 🖥️ *Software plays a crucial role in ASML machines, with significant growth in CPUs and sensors, emphasizing the importance of software development in their success.* Made with HARPA AI
As soon as I saw your new video dropped I made a hot cup of cocoa with some marshmallows and sat down to watch this ❤ You genuinely enlighten my mind every single time I watch your work. Thanks for turning your passion into something genuinely interesting, entertaining and enjoyable to watch. Hope you have an awesome day ✌️
Fabulous video! The positioning technology reminds me of how the primary mirrors were "tuned" on the JWST. Different, using screws and cams, but equally accurate.
I have really quickly grown to love this channel. I am fairly well rounded in my knowledge due to being an autistic science nerd, I also am very well versed in much of the mechanics covered with microchips, but my god do I feel like I know so little when hearing some of these videos. I don't mind that, ill catch on, but thank you for bringing out this feeling that I havent had in a long time.
I'm kind of curious how they got the 1.2 Billions lines of code figure. By comparison, very large OSS projects (LibreOffice, Chromium, Linux Kernel, Blender) are in the order of a few 10 Millions. IIRC, billion sloc is a figure more often used to describe the entire code base of giants like Facebook or Google. If I were to guess, I suppose in these billions of lines, the vast majority must be auto-generated and more specifically auto-generated tests/test data (a bit like sqlite which has +500 times the SLOC of tests compared to the actual library). I'm also expecting these programs to actually be more automatons with millions of states and transitions. But it's only a guess, and I would love to have a look at the code ^^.
I was about to say the same. I feel like it must be off by at least 2 orders of magnitude. The number will vary based on what it being counted (does the figure include the OS and computer vision libraries?), but I can't imagine the number being a billion.
As someone maintaining a PAS 5500 system, I’d guess that a lot of code has gone into error handling and data logging. The software has very detailed error messages that cascade such that they refer back to what triggered them. Furthermore, there are inspiring messages sprinkled through the logging when encountering alignment issues. Things like: “attempt failed, but we’re not giving up yet”. These always make me smile.
I think more of an enlarger than a camera. An image is projected as opposed to captured, the original doesn't change but the print does. Is the image beam also moved around and/or focused with magnets? Besides the lenses and coatings, mirrors and prisms and filters and ish
Hi Mr. Jon. Have you heard about the recent Graphene Semiconductor news? My jaw dropped as this felt like a real deal this time. Is there any chance that you'll review it in future?
I work as a DUV metrology engineer at ASML. And this is basically the work I do for ASML. There is a lot I would to talk on about your video, but I'm not allowed. The only thing I know I can comment on is that you are incorrect at 10:00, that NXT and XT are just distinguished by their wavelength. I.e. XT machines also use 365 nm light. Although it is true that NXT is more advanced and therefore uses in general smaller wavelengths. And NXE always uses EUV. Maybe it is a good idea to do a video about the NXE, NXT and XT differences? As I myself don't really know the differences between them that much.
The main difference between the XT and NXT machines are actually the wafer stage, going from air bearing to magnetic levitation, and interferometer-encoder system for stage align. There are also variants of XT machines that use ArF DUV light, and even immersion, but less commonly used.
@ 10:00 - The machine "can process 125 wafers an hour, so 1 every 2 minutes". Just a small mistake slipped through, its surly the other way around; "~2 per minute". ;-)
As a beginning DUV engineer your videos on lithography are very interesting and actively help me in my work. Thank you for that. As a request: could you look at the old systems and their modern use? I know of some very old ASML PAS systems which are still running this day, even though their technology is from the 1980's.
The answer is laser. LIGO has sub proton precision interferometry. Also a LISA demonstrator has performed laser positioning which uses lasers to push objects around for precise alignment.
One more tiny mistake at 1:13 in the video. The caption says it is an ArF machine, but the picture is on an i-line machine. As seen by the type number (400) on the left and the fact that the light originates at a lightbulb inside the machine instead of an external laser. Saw the same mistake in an earlier video.
How much is known of the DUV Nikon and Canon lithography machines? I believe they aren't as modular as ASML machines. But other than that do they also follow a similar design, such as long-stroke/shortstroke? At least the wafer handler should be reasonably similar since they at least need to be able to handle the same FOUPs (not sure if the track are also similar? A video about the track might also be interesting).
Nikon uses short path interferometry in some of their tools (like NXT, nut the implementation is a bit different) Basically Nikon's aim is to have the actual stage (the opart holding the wafer) to be as passive as possible. So they have a secondary 'metrology stage' that has limited range and houses the sensors to align reticle/lens, dose control , lens heating etc.
Maybe next step in IC production is to replace wafers with some other techonolgy... it would be great some sort of continuous prodcution line as in glass or aluminum industries
Holding ~1 nm alignment tolerance over meter-scale distances is hard enough; holding that tolerance dynamically while the waver and mask are moving at a relative speed of several meters per sec is insane. In the time it takes the light to get from the mask to the wafer, the wafer will have moved something like 5 nm. So somewhere in those billion+ lines of code controlling the system there is a correction for the finite speed of light.
Actually its *only* less than 10 mil lines
Nope. Real time systems have less lines of code.
More code, slower execution
It's not moving during exposure. It stops each time. The coarse motor stops, then fine motor adjust, then light strikes. But since the source light consist in laser shooting a tin droplet to vaporise it. All this happens while the droplet is on its way.... Mad !
@@TheBokanist No, it is moving. It's called "step and scan".
You realize how precise this operation is when he says "... refractive index of the air, which changed as the stage moved around, it threw off things by as much as ONE NANOmeter, which was UNACCEPTABLE..." that is really crazy!
yeah but why would moving the stage change the refractive index of air?
@@alquinn8576because even a slight change in density of the a ir within the litho stage could change the refractive index of the air. And density can be changed with even the slightest push in any direction
@@warpspeedscp so this is how tracking device work in alien movie. :D "micro changes in air density"
@@warpspeedscp makes sense, thanks
yibosun4091
r/Newsentences
I work in a cleanroom assembling these machines for ASML. We hold tolerances in microns and this video gives a good explanation of just why we do that lol
Lol, miss those tolerance stack up analysis.
less tolerance is needed for these new nodes, my Family was Nat Lab in the early days, TU e too
how much do they pay an hour? I contract guys for like assembling vacuum machines for coating glass and etc and they pay us for the guys around 40 euros an hour.
I thought the tolerances were less than a nm?
@@taylorkaplan2614 Tolerances for assembling the machine from X amount of components and the tolerances that the components while working can achieve is a different thing.
It always blows my mind how complex these machines are, how many technologies and innovations that has devoloped over decades to reach this point. Probably the most complex thing humans have ever constructed.
It's the Manhattan/Apollo project from the private sector!
These really are among the most impressive technological acheivements we've ever made
It's no complex. Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave.
Impressive? Yes! Most high-speed, accurate targeting? Not by a long shot. Take a look at what the LHC has to do at the CMU, ATLAS, and other detectors. They have to shoot atomic nuclei at each other at relativistic speeds and have the computational capabilities to sort through 140Tbits of aftermath data per day.
Still - ASML's machines are insanely impressive!
@@vitorlucio1195I’m not quite sure about that. What was impressive about Manhattan and Apollo was the incredibly short timescale. Regardless, the semiconductor industry’s achievements are damn impressive. And I get to work at one of these chip companies 😎
I worked on these tools for 15-16 years at various sites. From. 2500s, 5500s all the way to NXTs. Left ASML in 2018 to live a more peaceful life in the Philippines. Working under pressure to deadlines, to customers watching your every move, I have not regretted my decision. I am out of the rat race. As they say, money isn’t everything
Wow what a story!
Hear hear! I worked for Canon USA several years. Worked up to the 248nm steppers and the very beginning of the 193nm step and scan. I left because these tools were getting too complex and got tired of field service travel. I’m still in the industry but with an analog device company which uses 365nm i-line like the i1 shown in the video and their next gen air bearing stage models, all 90’s technology. Still complex but relaxed specifications, the biggest headache is finding reliable parts.
@love2fly558, yep. I actually started on those i lines at ASML, single stage steppers. Definitely, a lot less complex, albeit only slightly. Then worked my way up to those monstrous 193nm Twinscan NXTs in OR. I don’t miss any of it, honestly. I just do mostly honey-do lists here in the blistering heat of the Philippines. It’s way better than being watched like a hawk by a new PhD grad who has no idea how things work in reality, LOL.
Yeap, I remember hearing about the Twinscan when I was in Canon USA; back when ASML, Canon and Nikon were always competing for number
1.
I got lucky with this analog company. The fab is small and I’m the only one that knows the steppers well. I set the qualification tests for production, set the specification limits and design my own PMs. I don’t go to meetings and managment pretty much leaves me alone. It is a double edged knife, because they keep texting me for help during my weeklong vacations.
Hahaha. I hear your pain brother. When it was still pagers, I hated it as well being called on my days off. I actually was in the northeast back early 2000s working remotely. I dreaded that company pager. Then came the cell phones and of course, it became a direct call from management.
Good for you though, smaller fabs are actually the best. As long as everything is running, you won’t be bugged. Big customers are always the biggest PIAs. I was at TriQuint once too, one of the guys who kept the place afloat. They pretty much kept their distance because only the FSEs knew how to keep the steppers working.
Anyway, for me, I think I am too old to go back to the semiconductor business. Can’t crawl under those tools anymore without getting vertigo hahaha. It’s a young man’s game now.
Take care
The hydraulic backstory of early ASML is really fascinating. Little historical lessons like the chip manufactures rejecting ASML equipment make for powerful stories to understand and explain decisions you'll need to make in the future. Great video!
the later magnetic system, as Chessmaster, moving the pieces for you ;)
The technology behind this is (to say at least) insane. My dad worked at RIZ semiconductors in Yugoslavia, they made transistors and ICs. He regularly talks about his days working there and how interesting and good it was. He was very sad when company shut down before the war and he never recovered from it. I can imagine how happy he would be if they had something like this in factory.
I remember the first time when I asked my parents "What's this old ruin here?", and when my mum told me that they used to make microchips here I of course had no idea what that is at a time, not until about a decade later, and nowadays... it really hurts whenever I remember that our country no longer makes ICs.
themrworf1701
_-Rizz-_- semi-conductors?-
I'm... I'm sorry...
Now I just need someone to make a AN6680 IC. I doubt TSMC would copy it.
Do you have any info what ICs they were making? I was searching for what was made there, but only have from Iskra and EI Nis
What's more insane is that there's only a handful of them and our entire civilization & way of life depends on them working.
Fun fact: I grew up in the city of Eindhoven and the Philips Natlab lays in the cities district called “Strijp” when Philips moved out of Eindhoven with all their manufacturing facilities this part of town became like a ghost town. The municipality of Eindhoven invested heavily in the district for the past 10 years or so and it now houses many restaurants, cafes and foodhalls. The old Philips factories have been converted into apartments, offices spaces, start-ups and the district really became a new hotspot for the city.
The old Natlab is the current High Tech Campus, the buildings still exist and are still being used, not sure where the association with Strijp comes from
Stijp is not Nat Lab, but it started there, in the boiler room at Stijp, the early development was there. Het Kolenhok was niet meer nodig.
@@LanteanStargater we need to make content here for him, the boiler-room at Stijp etc
I worked in Strijp for a while for a start-up. Cool place, though far to industrial and urban (and southern) for my taste and hilarious to see burgerking and coke sponsor the sportsday for elementary school on the fields next to the building. Reminded me of seeing smoking sponsorships for sprint matches back when advertisement of smoking was still a thing.
For me Strijp had a really mismatched feeling with it being somewhat rundown and highly industrial while being rebuild and reused to be "hip" and approachable. Like a part of town that has an identity crisis, maybe that has changed in the last 5/6-ish years. Still miss the greek food from there, that was one of the best take-away greek food I ever had.
Has ASML moved away from Veldhoven? I know people often interchange Eindhoven and Veldhoven when referring to ASML's location, where are they now located? Could use a glass of Dommelsch.
I worked with a former ASML mechanical engineer for a while. He was of the opinion that the ASML stage is a masterpiece that has held up for decades and generations of machines, and he obsessed over specifications I have never heard of. Fantastic stuff
So fun to see the ASML videos. It is interesting to see what has and has not come passed the walls of our company. As someone that works in their learning department these videos are great inspiration. Keep it up!
They do all this so I can watch my NETFLIX. Thanks for your efforts ASML.
I use my phone to watch gay porn
They do it for profit😅
@@halavich9672 But they get their money by giving this man the ability watch his stories. Without giving the man access to his stories, the man wouldn't give them his money and without the mans money there wouldn't be profits.
@@halavich9672The reason they profit, its cause their offerings are extremely valuable in the first place
@@halavich9672🥰
The thing that really makes my head 🤯is that the wafer and reticle are in motion during the exposure. They move opposite directions with a tiny slit between them such that only a narrow line of the image is projected onto the wafer at a time. The relative motion of the two needs to match exactly so the reticle image lines up with the correct part of the wafer.
So that crazy 1nm overlay spec that you were probably thinking is a "line up and hold it still within 1nm" is actually "drive the wafer and reticle in opposite directions while accelerating at 20Gs and do not allow the speed of either the reticle or wafer to deviate by more than 1nm from it's predicted x or y location at any point along the path."
The lens scales down. The reticle only needs 4nm precision.
@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt “only” XD
@@liesdamnlies3372Me baking waffels to only 7nm precision. Old technology, my bad.
Fantastic video containing a lot of details I wasn't really aware of. Thanks for making this!
Glad you enjoyed it! I love your work too
I love your litho videos bro I’ve seen everyone at least 5 times. Your videos are the only ones I have found that go into great detail about every process and very easy to understand. This semiconductor field just fascinating and boggles my mind
HostilityXBL
Hear hear!
Fifteen kilograms. For an easy point of reference, that's the same weight as twenty-six Cornish piebald hissing marmots.
Thanks, that really puts it into perspective.
xD
Cryocool.
you underestimate the weight of my cornish piebald hissing marmots
Whats the hard reference? 😂
Correction on your throughput statement at 10:06. 125 wafers per hour is about two wafers per minute, not one wafer every two minutes. This isn't the only time you make this error in this video.
Shut up lol
He’s good at making a video but bad at math. I noticed that too so came to the comments to see if anyone else noticed.
I wanted to write the same comment thx!
YES! more videos on how the ASML machines actually function please!
Chinese spy 😂
Or American ... 😊 @@solidfuel0
Great job documenting ASML technical history, old Philips guy here.
mounted the lasers on sharks, less error when you reverse that, lol
I've designed and built quite a few motion systems for this industry. This is a great summary, thank you! I love your videos, first time commenting, just had to say it!
hi
I found this so interesting! Moving 15kg with nanometer precision in 6 degrees of freedom with about 20g of acceleration is just extremely impressive!
Not to mention training all the sharks for the laser metrology job.
It’s always fascinating to realise that to make a newer, better version of a tool, it’s usually necessary to use the previous iteration tool. Example, to manufacture a lathe we need a lathe. To create a new version of a compiler software, we need the previous version of the compiler. To create a new lithography machine we need a previous lithography machine that produced parts for it
Just this last year we got rid of two new-to-us pas 5500 ASML steppers. They were used as initial process development demonstrators and have been replaced by much newer double-sided alignment capable machines. Good luck to the next folks who find those 5500s as new-to-them.
As someone maintaining a PAS 5500 myself, I’m sure whoever receives these will be quite happy with them.
We had those in silterra malaysia PAS 5500/400 & 700.
I thought it was funny that the air bearings involve the wafers “floating” on a granite slab. All these wicked complicated polymers and materials and chemicals, and they use a rock to glide the wafers around
Flat earth 😂
One of the most awesome wrap up I ever saw. I work in a little fab producing low grade reticles and love your channel!
Great content. I learned a lot about steppers and scanners I didn’t know here.
However, at around 2:00, i'm not sure I follow what you mean by: “In the early days of the semiconductor industry, the whole mask contained the whole design. But as the designs got more complicated, the industry started using ‘reticles’, which represent a portion of the whole chip design.”
“The whole mask contained the whole design” makes it sound like early processes only required a single mask, which as far as I know has never been true. The 1971 10um process required 6 masks, and earlier processes would still have required multiple masks at least for active areas, gates, and interconnects.
Or, the other way to interpret what you said here is, I think, that on early processes, a single mask was able to expose an entire WAFER in one shot. This was possible when wafers were small and masks were large, and was generally available, I believe, through 4” (100mm) wafers that were in use through the 1970s. The entire wafer could be imaged on a single mask (one mask per layer), including multiple instances of the chip design that was being created, for as many chips that would fit on a 4” wafer.
But by the time 6” (150mm) wafers came around in the early 1980s, steppers were introduced that required reticles, where each reticle also contained potentially multiple instances of a chip design (one reticle per layer), but then the reticle was stepped across the wafer, such that each reticle only represented a portion of the entire WAFER, as opposed to “a portion of the whole chip design”.
Is that what you mean by those statements? Seems like some terminology like wafer, chip, and design are being used interchangeably, when they shouldn't be.
100 mm not 100cm…
@@mith5168thx fixed
Thank you for the video!
We at EVG Group also are very experienced dealing with overlay in the nanometer scale. Mostly doing bonding but also lito. We are also ALWAYS hiring :)
Great video! You described yet another part of the ASML lithography machine that's way more complex than I ever imagined. I was previously aware that they use plasma lensing which already sounded insanely hard to pull off but I didn't know they use magnetic levitation to move the target object, too!
Great to hear non-food channels giving the shout-out to Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I lucked out when somebody recommended it to me a decade ago. I found the commentary track great too!
13:24 -- "Magnets, how do they work?"
The Juggalo in me applauds you, well played sir!
It was perfect. He should be invited to Jaggalo island
This comment send me down a rabbit hole and I am more confused than before. What is the reference here?
A small correction: Timestamp 15:02: The wafer stage holds both position module chucks. There's no way the wafer stage has 15 Kg. I don't have an exact number for you but I can tell for sure that only a positioning module (which holds the wafer table) has around 50-70 kg.
I can, with 100% certainty, verify this having to swap one recently😅
09:50
explanation here is incorrect.
model name of the machine depends on how the stage is driven and measured.
XT : measure stage position by interferometer system + stage is driven by air bearings and linear motors / XT860:KrF, XT1460:ArF, XT1950:ArFi
NXT : measure stage position by encoder system + stage moves by magnetic levitation /. NXT870:KrF, NXT1470:ArF, NXT2100:ArFi
NXE : use EUV Laser, measure stage position by interferometer system
Came for the lithography, stayed for the face reveal
I don't think that is a real face reveal, since we know Jon is asian, half Taiwanese and half Hong Kong.
Half Taiwan half HK? So Chinese? Land makes no difference@@andymetzen
bro lmao these replies are the best
@@100c0c According to genetic research, Taiwanese is definitely not Chinese, try again wumao
00:07 ASML machine must position a wafer precisely within a few nanometers for exposure.
02:11 ASML lithography machines use a reticle and objective lens to transfer a chip's design onto a wafer.
04:15 ASML evolved from Philips in the Netherlands
06:17 ASML's TWINSCAN platform enables precise maneuvering and exposure of silicon wafers.
08:16 ASML's TWINSCAN machine revolutionized lithography processes with dual-stage setup
10:06 Lithography machines move wafers with precision and speed.
12:00 ASML lithography machines implemented aerostatic systems to reduce friction and vibrations during wafer stage movements.
14:05 NXT immersion systems have reduced metrology laser travel and improved overlay.
All your videos are 5 star videos. This one is a 6 star....Just brilliant!!!!
Loved the technical details and the history / context provided...
Magnets, how do they work!?
A man of culture ic lmao
"one last time".
NO.
PLEASE.
You'll always find amazing things to say and this subject/domain is crucial and fascinating so please go on and on and on 🙂
This video is just the tip of the iceberg. I work on the Canon steppers. On the Canons, not only the XY stage needs nanometer accuracy, but there’s also a Z-tilt stage that needs to move the wafer in Z and XY tilt accurately for precise focus. The projection lens need to be free of any imperfections to minimize aberrations. They also have computers, internal networking and much electronics and control systems. Like hrldoliente1 wrote, these tools are very complex and stressful to work on. I settled for an analogy device company that uses 90’s steppers, still complex but relatively relaxed specifications.
There are pneumatic stage working in vacuum, you just need to locally create an air film and remove all the air leak from side using multiple stages of differential pumping. Seems crazy but it works. in fact these are some of the most precise stages that can achieve nm precision without using long-short stroke stacking. Such know-hows stay almost completely in Japan though.
Strange that they don't use piezo actuators in any stage. Piezo actuators are used in atomic force microscopy and they are can move objects within distance of atom.
Well, ASML is actually doing research in this field.
The fact that you can't see them, doesn't mean they're not used in those machines... 😊
Have some still working ~1mkm soviet made systems for lithography on 100mm wafers.
1-stage, air floating table driven by 3 lasers for positioning and 4 electromagnets for movement.
It's really complicated even at this level of technology.
I can't even imagine how scary everything is there right now.
Thank you for comparing the wafer stage to a grizzled tree kangaroo, it really helped put things into perspective
honestly i watch your videos to fall asleep and they're great at that, soothing. plus i learn new things
So interesting and amazing. The precision is mind boggling.
Nice video as always >85% correct. 12:16 EUV does not exist in Air, this dictated switch to vacuum. Neither does eBeam (maskless photolithography...). I find it is easier to manage particles in air with proper airflow and low wear or dedicated particle traps/evacuation techniques. In vacuum you have no medium to manipulate the particles out of the way. You can mostly focus on not creating them in the 1st place.
He said in the video: for EUV air bearing don't work in vacuum so they switched to magnetic levitation.
I may have missed that, but air bearing in vacuum does exist. Air bearing flow is very small and be overcome with additional pumping capacity.
Fun fact, in the early 2000s Philips produced their own logic chips on 200mm with Nikon steppers using spindle driven stages.
While its obviously on a totally different scale this discussion reminds me a lot of what I've heard about how core XY 3d printers work, including vibration and harmonic compensation, though they rely much more on the software side to avoid needing such specific mounting, heavy weight, and expensive extremely rigid construction. Given the related concepts at a muxh more approachable scale I thing seeing a video on them from this channel could be very interesting.
There is an unbelievably larger amount of software and all sorts of crazy compensations in the lithography machines (down to frame *creep* compensation lol), there is really no comparing them to a printer, besides the fact that you can find probably find stepper motors in both. Actually Im not sure that you will find steppers in modern litho machines.
Chip making has become impossibly awesome. The evolutions have been mind blowing
I'll never be able to unsee kangaroos sliding around inside ASML.
At least they are metric kangaroos instead of those ridiculously inconsistent imperial kangaroos.
A talk about movement in an ASML Lithography Machine, without mentioning ASML's supplier Prodrive Technologies?
It is often joked how ASML (and it's campus) is on one side of Eindhoven and Prodrive (and it's campus) on the other side.
I visited Prodrive a couple of months ago. They had one of those evenings where they lure in developers and engineers with free pizza and beer and a very interesting talk about how they have developed their own Git for FPGA code, and hope some will apply for a job.
And we got a tour. I've seen those FPGA racks and they are indeed very impressive.
Your essays on anything litho tech are my favorite by far...we would love a deep dive on all subsystems! This video was epic! Keep up the excellent work as you have many fans!
"required the presence of the vacuum" your pun has been acknowledged, good sir
The race circuit shown is Circuitpark Zandvoort. A coastal track in the Netherlands.
We worried about my 3d printer vibrations and then this video 😂
i feel like a genius when i wire 1 led and it doesnt fry, the sheer complexity even through the lens of my humunculi level of mind, fucking blows my brain to nano metre sized higss boson sized confetti bits..mhyvtw45rtyujhbvcser
Magnets how do they work?
This is really interesting stuff. I'm constantly amazed that ASML essentially have the industry all tied up. This is also the second video I've seen today that talked about interferometers and both said the word very differently 😉
*Summary*
*Introduction to Nanoscale Measurements*
- 0:02: A human hair is about 50,000 to 100,000 nanometers wide.
- 0:07: A virus is roughly 20 to 300 nanometers wide.
- 0:10: A fingernail grows about 1 nanometer each second.
*ASML Machine Precision and Process*
- 0:14: ASML machines position a wafer for DUV or EUV exposure with precision to within a few nanometers.
- 0:24: The precision required in these processes inspired the creation of this video.
- 0:29: ASML lithography machines use magnets to hold and move a wafer.
- 0:38: An optical lithography machine is a $150 million camera using high-energy light to transfer chip designs onto a wafer.
- 0:55: The process starts with applying a light-sensitive polymer (photoresist) onto the wafer.
- 1:13: Inside the lithography tool are sub-components like the light source, condenser lens, photomask, and objective lens.
- 1:22: The illumination system, made of the light source and condenser lens, delivers light to transfer the pattern.
- 1:35: ASML's EUV machine uses multiple mirrors for illumination despite significant power reduction.
- 1:45: The photomask or reticle containing the chip design pattern is critical in the process.
- 2:00: "Reticles" represent portions of the chip design, and the terms "mask" and "reticle" are used interchangeably.
- 2:26: The objective lens focuses the light and shrinks the image.
- 2:35: The light strikes the resist-coated wafer, creating a 3D relief of the chip's design.
*Wafer Handling and Positioning Challenges*
- 2:45: The wafer and its stage weigh about 15 kilograms, akin to a Grizzled Tree-Kangaroo.
- 3:01: The platform must move wafers quickly and stop precisely during exposure.
- 3:19: Good "overlay" is crucial for the correct positioning of pattern layers.
- 3:41: Multi-patterning involves multiple exposures to create smaller lines.
- 3:48: The wafer stage can accelerate up to 20 G-forces.
- 4:06: The system must avoid vibrations during fast movements to maintain precision.
*Historical Development of ASML and Philips*
- 4:15: ASML evolved from Philips in the Netherlands, with a history in semiconductors.
- 4:29: Philips' NatLab developed the pioneering lithography machine, the Silicon Repeater.
- 4:34: Philips used "hydraulic linear motors" in early wafer steppers, which were precise but unreliable.
- 5:00: Hydraulic system leaks in cleanrooms led to the exploration of electrically-driven systems.
- 5:35: Philips' experience in optical disk technologies influenced the development of linear motors for wafer positioning.
- 6:25: The shift to 300 millimeter wafers required re-engineered lithography machines.
*TWINSCAN Technology*
- 6:49: ASML created the TWINSCAN platform for lithography with a dual-stage cycle.
- 7:02: TWINSCAN uses electrostatic forces to clamp wafers and reduces direct contact to minimize contamination.
- 7:21: Wafers are loaded/unloaded by a robot and start with the measurement stage.
- 7:38: The machine aligns the wafer to the reticle for focus and accurate overlay.
- 7:50: During stage swaps, the machine can exchange reticles, requiring new alignment.
- 8:01: TWINSCAN's wafer movements are coordinated by the Control Architecture Reference Model (CARM).
*Engineering Innovations and Challenges*
- 8:22: Major engineering challenges in developing the dual stage setup included re-balancing weight and mass, and managing vibrations.
- 8:43: Lens and metrology equipment isolated from the main frame using air-bearings to reduce friction.
- 8:50: Measurement stage, not exposure, is key to throughput; example given comparing to sushi preparation.
- 9:44: TWINSCAN has several product categories: NXE for EUV lithography, NXT with 193-nm ArF DUV light, and XT with 248-nm KrF DUV light.
- 10:02: NXE:3350 EUV machine processes 125 wafers an hour, while sophisticated DUV machines can handle 200-300 wafers.
- 10:17: Machines have modular builds and are upgradable to meet modern requirements.
*Movement Systems and Technological Evolution*
- 10:38: Lithography machines have two movement systems: "coarse stage" for transport and "fine stage" for precision.
- 11:21: Evolution of precision movement technologies in machines, from mechanical systems to aerostatic systems.
- 12:32: ASML used interferometers with lasers for stage positioning, requiring adjustments for air refractive index changes.
- 13:17: Transition to magnetic levitation in preparation for EUV lithography in vacuum environments.
[ I think they switched to vacuum because EUV is absorbed by air. I think that is a more important reason than particle control. ]
link: indico.cern.ch/event/445667/contributions/2562988/attachments/1513761/2361548/MT25_926_Peijnenburg_v5.pdf
(see bottom for summary of this VDL presentation)
- 13:24: Explanation of magnet technology in wafer stages, including Halbach array for magnetic field optimization.
- 14:01: Metrology challenges in immersion systems and improvements in overlay accuracy.
- 14:24: Design challenges include dealing with magnetic field interference and cooling requirements.
- 14:33: Proposals for single mag-lev systems to handle both short and long-stroke movements.
*Conclusion and Software's Role*
- 15:02: The extreme precision required by ASML machines is highlighted with a personal anecdote.
- 15:21: Significant role of software in lithography machines, with a dramatic increase in CPU, sensors, and lines of source code.
*Summary of VDL Presentation*
- *In-Chamber Magnet Technology Presentation:*
- Authors: Ton Peijnenburg, Aernout Kisteman, Paul Blom
- Date: August 29th, 2017
- Event: MT25 - Amsterdam
- Presented by VDL Enabling Technologies Group
- *VDL Enabling Technologies Group Overview:*
- Specializes in semiconductor capital equipment, analytical equipment, and more
- Evolved from Philips Machine Factories (1900)
- Operations in 5 countries, 9 companies
- Facilities: 182,000 m² production area, including 16,000 m² cleanroom
- Workforce: 2,200 employees
- Services: Contract manufacturing with design and life cycle management
- *Photolithography in Semiconductor Manufacturing:*
- Focus on wafer stage with specific characteristics:
- Scan speed: 1 m/s
- Acceleration: 30 m/s²
- Overlay accuracy: 2.5 nm
- Moving mass: 20 kg
- Drive force: 600 N
- Position control critical for chip manufacturing
- *ASML's Photolithography Tool:*
- Emphasizes position control in lithographic equipment
- *Actuation for Accurate Positioning:*
- Fine actuation: Electrodynamic with 6 DOF, 1 mm stroke, 20 kg moving mass, 0.25 nm position error
- Coarse actuation: Planar maglev with 6 DOF, 1 m stroke, 75 kg moving mass, 25 µm position error
- *Design of Coarse Coil Module:*
- Includes various components like foil coil, power connectors, and cooling covers
- Specifications for fine and coarse actuators outlined
- *Magnet Plate for Levitation Stage Coarse Motor:*
- Dimensions: 2200 x 1300 mm
- Weight: Frame approx. 800 kg, magnets 623 kg
- Contains various types of magnets
- Emphasizes the automated assembly for accuracy and safety
- *Summary of Developments:*
- Advances driven by the need for fast, accurate wafer and mask positioning
- Key aspects: High force density, tight tolerances, automated manufacturing
- *Future Development Directions:*
- Focus on accuracy, power, and efficiency
- Potential improvements: Increased drive voltages, superconducting coils, better heat conduction, mechanical stability
- *Acknowledgements:*
- Technology development attributed to ongoing work by ASML and its suppliers, including Philips and VDL Enabling Technologies Group
- Special thanks to ASML for allowing the use of their material in the presentation.
Disclaimer: I used chatgpt4 to summarize the video transcript and one PDF.
Big thanks for presentation pdf, very interesting!
@@AABB-px8lc The link of the PDF is shown in the video. It is not mine. I just typed the link into the comment because it is an interesting presentation.
LASERS, mounted on sharks @ 12:40
Frickin hilarious!
Incredible video, idk what's more impressive- what the machine does, or the humans who made it.
ASML is the most important company in the world! Along with Zeiss and TSMC. Other well knownlarge IT companies do not even come close.
Agreed
using the "air hockey" design in a vacuum is actually possible. IMS and JEOL do that and they have the same specs for accuracy
Ok now I discovered that exists a creature called Grizzled Tree-Kangaroo, also interesting to know that its weight is equal to a wafer 🤣🤣 I love the way you sometimes put a joke inside the video like it was a serious argument LOL
1.2 billion lines of code. wow. cant imagine the testing involved. thank you for sharing knowledge
Its crazy to think of how much those halbach arrays must cost
what software and machine make the reticles/masks? that's several billions of pixels I imagine.
I don't see how you would combine fine and rough movement stages. I've been working on a linear motor for some time now, and getting into the fine details is quite interesting. if you have a big mass to move, you need A LOT of energy for high acceleration and precise positioning. While there are many variables which can be tuned, at the end of the day you're limited by the amount of energy you can dump into the coil. because every bit of energy used creates heat in the electronics and the coil itself, which distorts the positioning, and no sensor in the world is accurate enough to measure that through the control circuit itself. the only way to measure the error generated by the heat in the components is with sensors that measure the output - interferometers in this case. however that means that you can only compensate for the error after it has already occurred, which means you have to always accept some error. of course you can run calibrations so you know exactly what movement generates how much heat distortion and create mathematical models for that so you can correct ahead of time but that also only brings you so far and means you have to perfectly control the environment so that everything is perfectly repeatable. so, splitting up the motion stage into two is a simple physical necessity. a smaller stage has less mass that needs to be moved, less heat in that stage that is generated, less distortion and error at the same speeds (to a point that it can also compensate for the errors of the larger stage).
Im not sure what problems you see combining fine and rough movement stages. You are right about the heat causing errors, but temp sensors are used. You are also right about model based compensation, feed forward control is often used, among other lesser known types, and you are right about calibrations and a well controlled environment. Hehehe, all of this is used in combination to achieve the mindbending accuracy. And the main reason for the two stage design is simply the process requirements. Need the wafers to move as fast as possible, but positioned within sub 10 nm. its essentially impossible to produce such a design in a single piece, a lot of math has been done to reach that conclusion.
1.25 billion lines of code are operating these machines? What the actual hell what are they doing with 1.25 billion lines of code in a lithography machine. I truly cannot imagine why that much software is needed.
You probaply realise how much of a marvel the mechanical and optical design is, the control algorithms are just as magical! But yea that is a bit much.
I don't know how the latest machines do it, but when I worked at ASML in 1998 (during the early days of the TwinScan when TwinScan was still called Atlas), the way that the machines avoided vibration was by having some counterweights that (although they weren't mechanically connected) moved around in opposite directions of the reticle stage and wafer stage. In those days, the motion control system ran on a rack of custom-made computers based on Texas Instruments DSP's that controlled the 20+ degrees of freedom all at the same time.
We used piezo based motors for precision positioning back in the day.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:02 🌐 *ASML lithography machines require extreme precision within nanometer margins for wafer positioning during exposure.*
01:00 🔍 *An optical lithography machine, like ASML's, uses a complex process involving photoresist, illumination, photomask, and objective lens to transfer chip designs onto a wafer.*
02:22 🚧 *Wafer stages in lithography machines must handle heavy wafers, execute rapid movements with nanometer accuracy, and maintain precise overlays to avoid errors.*
03:48 ⚙️ *Inside the machine, the wafer stage can accelerate up to 20 G-forces, demanding stability to prevent vibrations that could impact precision targeting.*
05:12 🏭 *ASML evolved from Philips, transitioning from hydraulic systems to electrically-driven systems, leveraging experience in optical disk technologies.*
06:34 🔄 *ASML's TWINSCAN platform, introduced in the 2000s, revolutionized lithography by incorporating a dual-stage cycle for measurement and exposure.*
09:44 🌐 *TWINSCAN machines, such as NXE for EUV lithography, NXT for 193-nanometer ArF DUV, and XT for 248-nanometer KrF DUV, are designed for diverse customer needs.*
10:42 🛤️ *Lithography machines feature two movement systems: coarse stage for extended range and high speed, and fine stage prioritizing precision over distance.*
12:27 🔍 *Precision movement technologies progressed from mechanical systems to aerostatic systems and eventually to magnetic levitation to meet cleanliness benchmarks.*
13:24 🔧 *ASML uses a complex magnet plate array with over 2,200 magnets for wafer stage positioning, addressing challenges like magnetic interference and cooling.*
15:13 🖥️ *Software plays a crucial role in ASML machines, with significant growth in CPUs and sensors, emphasizing the importance of software development in their success.*
Made with HARPA AI
You are hilarious. I can't imagine better alignment of joy and precision in the subject matter.
As soon as I saw your new video dropped I made a hot cup of cocoa with some marshmallows and sat down to watch this ❤
You genuinely enlighten my mind every single time I watch your work. Thanks for turning your passion into something genuinely interesting, entertaining and enjoyable to watch.
Hope you have an awesome day ✌️
Oh I grabbed a Dr. Foots and tortilla chips!
Fabulous video!
The positioning technology reminds me of how the primary mirrors were "tuned" on the JWST. Different, using screws and cams, but equally accurate.
Your deadpan delivery is so perfect, I almost missed the "lasers mounted on sharks" joke.
thanks, i can advance in building my DIY litho home machine !!
I will be glad to get acquainted with your thoughts on this matter. I'm thinking about this question myself.
This was a joke, i don't think it is doable without a team of engineers AND a bunch of money to create the parts for it@@Redfvvg
Hey bro, update?
Bro have a better chance building an DIY atomic bom at home 😂
No progress so far, I'll keep updated once i get my nuclear quant litho'ed CPU.
At 13:05 the big move to vacuum was not just cleanliness requirements, it's that air absorbs EUV.
4:27 Philips’ microchip lab is shaped like a microchip?
Here I was thinking ArF referred to “Argon Fluoride exciplex lasers” but it’s actually just the sound dogs make. Thanks!
Have you ever made a video about the manufacture of radiation-hardened chips and how its different?
I suspect it will be a bit boring, as obviously use bigger size, more voltage, more redundancy, different package.
I have really quickly grown to love this channel. I am fairly well rounded in my knowledge due to being an autistic science nerd, I also am very well versed in much of the mechanics covered with microchips, but my god do I feel like I know so little when hearing some of these videos.
I don't mind that, ill catch on, but thank you for bringing out this feeling that I havent had in a long time.
I'm kind of curious how they got the 1.2 Billions lines of code figure. By comparison, very large OSS projects (LibreOffice, Chromium, Linux Kernel, Blender) are in the order of a few 10 Millions. IIRC, billion sloc is a figure more often used to describe the entire code base of giants like Facebook or Google.
If I were to guess, I suppose in these billions of lines, the vast majority must be auto-generated and more specifically auto-generated tests/test data (a bit like sqlite which has +500 times the SLOC of tests compared to the actual library). I'm also expecting these programs to actually be more automatons with millions of states and transitions.
But it's only a guess, and I would love to have a look at the code ^^.
I was about to say the same. I feel like it must be off by at least 2 orders of magnitude. The number will vary based on what it being counted (does the figure include the OS and computer vision libraries?), but I can't imagine the number being a billion.
As someone maintaining a PAS 5500 system, I’d guess that a lot of code has gone into error handling and data logging. The software has very detailed error messages that cascade such that they refer back to what triggered them. Furthermore, there are inspiring messages sprinkled through the logging when encountering alignment issues. Things like: “attempt failed, but we’re not giving up yet”. These always make me smile.
I think more of an enlarger than a camera. An image is projected as opposed to captured, the original doesn't change but the print does. Is the image beam also moved around and/or focused with magnets? Besides the lenses and coatings, mirrors and prisms and filters and ish
Hi Mr. Jon. Have you heard about the recent Graphene Semiconductor news? My jaw dropped as this felt like a real deal this time. Is there any chance that you'll review it in future?
10:02 - Maybe I missed something but 125 wafers per hour = 2 wafers per minute not 2 minutes per wafer.
I work as a DUV metrology engineer at ASML. And this is basically the work I do for ASML. There is a lot I would to talk on about your video, but I'm not allowed. The only thing I know I can comment on is that you are incorrect at 10:00, that NXT and XT are just distinguished by their wavelength. I.e. XT machines also use 365 nm light. Although it is true that NXT is more advanced and therefore uses in general smaller wavelengths. And NXE always uses EUV.
Maybe it is a good idea to do a video about the NXE, NXT and XT differences? As I myself don't really know the differences between them that much.
Love your ASML videos!!! Please keep them coming!!!
The main difference between the XT and NXT machines are actually the wafer stage, going from air bearing to magnetic levitation, and interferometer-encoder system for stage align. There are also variants of XT machines that use ArF DUV light, and even immersion, but less commonly used.
0:40 So that would be more a projector than a camera then?
@ 10:00 - The machine "can process 125 wafers an hour, so 1 every 2 minutes".
Just a small mistake slipped through, its surly the other way around; "~2 per minute". ;-)
Bought ASML shares today. Thanks for this video!
the fact he used the comp weight to a "Tree Kangaroo" is the coolest thing in this video! 🤣
How do they hold the tree kangaroo still? Does it naturally freeze when it's not in a tree?
As a beginning DUV engineer your videos on lithography are very interesting and actively help me in my work. Thank you for that.
As a request: could you look at the old systems and their modern use? I know of some very old ASML PAS systems which are still running this day, even though their technology is from the 1980's.
As we approach the limits set by quantum mechanics, it's going to be interesting to see how they'll tackle the placement problem.
The answer is laser. LIGO has sub proton precision interferometry. Also a LISA demonstrator has performed laser positioning which uses lasers to push objects around for precise alignment.
One more tiny mistake at 1:13 in the video. The caption says it is an ArF machine, but the picture is on an i-line machine. As seen by the type number (400) on the left and the fact that the light originates at a lightbulb inside the machine instead of an external laser. Saw the same mistake in an earlier video.
How much is known of the DUV Nikon and Canon lithography machines? I believe they aren't as modular as ASML machines. But other than that do they also follow a similar design, such as long-stroke/shortstroke? At least the wafer handler should be reasonably similar since they at least need to be able to handle the same FOUPs (not sure if the track are also similar? A video about the track might also be interesting).
Nikon uses short path interferometry in some of their tools (like NXT, nut the implementation is a bit different) Basically Nikon's aim is to have the actual stage (the opart holding the wafer) to be as passive as possible. So they have a secondary 'metrology stage' that has limited range and houses the sensors to align reticle/lens, dose control , lens heating etc.
Maybe next step in IC production is to replace wafers with some other techonolgy... it would be great some sort of continuous prodcution line as in glass or aluminum industries
Great video. Had no idea the ASML machines had a direct lineage to the invention of CDs by Phillips 👍
This shows again how easy it is to think you know something without doing proper research. Thank you for correcting me.
10:08 That's two per minute, not one per two minutes. Well, at least it was when I went to school.
Where did you go to school at?