A 193 nm Deep-UV Lithography System Using a Line-Narrowed ArF Excimer Laser

A small field refractive projection system for operation at the 193.3 nm wavelength of a spectrally narrowed ArF excimer laser is being constructed. The 1 mm field, 20X system operates with a variable objective lens numerical aperture from 0.30 to 0.60, variable partial coherence, and control over illumination fill and mask tilt. A 30 W maximum power ArF excimer laser has been spectrally line-narrowed through incorporation of tilted Fabry-Perot etalons into the laser cavity, allowing linewidths on the order of7 cm\u27 (26 pm) with one etalon and 0.5 cm1 (2pm) with two etalons. This work reports laser line narrowing and lens performance results. Simulations of aerial image intensity distributions from lens aberration data will be presented for 0.25 and 0.20 micron geometry