I attended the half-day ASML Singapore Tech Forum held at the Pan Pacific Hotel. There were six interesting presentations in the following order:

• Moving forwards from 45nm down to 22nm: Lithography solutions and challenges
• Lowering layer cost with i-line, KrF and ArF
• EUV update - Moving towards 32nm lithography
• Computational lithography for the next node, and beyond
• 32nm node double patterning using 1.2NA immersion lithography: From design split and process options to process control
• Immersion technology for volume manufacturing

Overall, the seminar is informative and interesting. The first presentation gave the general overview of the whole seminar. It showed the current ArF resolution limitation governed by kλ/NA. While the resolution can be stretched by using high-NA immersion, more tricks are needed to stretch the resolution by squeezing k1, including using multipole light source, advanced RET/OPC, computational lithography and double patterning technique. The second presentation was trying to sell the concept of wavelength extension to reduce cost of ownership. I thought the idea was quite a good marketing strategy.

I was more impressed by ASML’s lead in EUV lithography. ASML has made big stride in the commercialization of EUV lithography this year by making a breakthrough in the EUV source power problem. By using a Sn source from Philips, the EUV lithography can now produce sufficient power to become a viable technology for 32nm. With this breakthrough, ASML has announced that its pre-production EUV tool will be ready by late 2009 and first installation base at IMEC (Ref).

The forth presentation was from Brion Technologies which was acquired by ASML in Q1 2007 (Ref). It presented the new challenges in OPC/RET, particularly for double patterning technology. I find it interesting that Brion dubbed their model-based OPC as computational lithography. I wonder whether this is similar to Intel’s computational lithography which computes the inverse problem (Ref)?

To get an overview of ASML products and roadmaps, you can view the following slides from their tech conference in Sep 2007.

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Last Friday, Singapore got its biggest ever boost in solar Industry. Renewable Energy Corp (REC), a leading Norwegian solar energy company, announced that it will build a massive $6.3 billion solar plant in Singapore (Ref). This is going to be largest solar manufacturing plant in the world. Singapore was chosen from 200 destinations due to the following factors: (1) REC could tap the large pool of readily available talents and knowledge workers from the well-established semiconductor industry in Singapore since solar and semiconductor manufacturing share many similarities, (2) strong government commitment to green and renewable energy technology and the large funding to green technology research, (3) compared to other regions, Singapore provides a relatively more secure and stable environment, as well as excellent infrastructure support, for manufacturing. The solar plant is expected to start production in 2010, making solar wafers, cells and modules. This $6.3 billion REC investment pales the earlier $150 million solar plant investment in Aug by indigenous Solar Morph Pte. Ltd with Applied Materials (Ref).

I believe the solar and semiconductor industry in Singapore will complement each other and propel Singapore’s semiconductor industry to a new level. In particular, local companies supporting the Fabs and facilities will definitely benefit from this new area of opportunities. Wafer substrate suppliers might also gain from the strong demand for polysilicon substrates. Workers from the semiconductor industry will also have more options to venture into this new emerging industry.

The slideshow below is the Singapore press conference prospectus from the REC.

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