According to the semiconductor industry on Dec. 2, Samsung Electronics has made significant progress with its extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography technology. At the recent KISM2023 academic conference in Busan, Samsung Electronics DS Division’s Fellow, Kang Young-seok, detailed the current state and future of the company’s EUV technology.
A key highlight was the use of EUV pellicles, a material necessary for the photolithography process in semiconductor manufacturing. Pellicles serve as protective covers on masks, preventing foreign particles from causing defects. Kang revealed that the transmission rate of the EUV pellicles used by Samsung has reached 90%, with plans to increase this to 94-96%.
A 90% transmission rate means that only 90% of the light entering the pellicle reaches the mask, potentially impacting the precision of the circuit patterns. This is comparatively lower than the 99.3% transmission rate of pellicles used in the more common argon fluoride (ArF) process.
EUV pellicles face commercialization challenges due to their susceptibility to warping or breaking from heat generated during the EUV process.
Samsung has introduced EUV pellicles in some of its advanced EUV foundry (chip manufacturing on behalf of clients) production lines for major clients. While the company has also implemented EUV processes in its DRAM production lines, it has deemed that memory mass production is feasible without pellicles, considering productivity and cost.
Interestingly, Kang suggested that Samsung is not using EUV pellicles from domestic South Korean suppliers. He disclosed that Mitsui in Japan is currently the sole supplier. While South Korean companies like FST and S&S Tech are actively developing EUV pellicles, they have not yet reached mass production. As the demand for pellicles grows with the increase of finer processes and more ASML EUV lithography machines, there’s keen interest in which Korean company will first become a partner of Samsung Electronics.
In comparison, Samsung’s foundry rival TSMC is already utilizing its own EUV pellicles in production lines for 7nm and smaller processes.