Monochromatic Microscopes?

[Lou Jost]

there are some cool looking ones out there. like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Giant-Photolit ... Sw0w5eXuh4

also love the description:
"Optical properties: really really big"
at 38" x 20" x 10" they weren't kidding

I like their other descriptive line for that lens:

“The biggest, heaviest, expensivest-looking lens we've ever seen!”

[RobertOToole]

there are some cool looking ones out there. like this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Giant-Photolit ... Sw0w5eXuh4

also love the description:
"Optical properties: really really big"
at 38" x 20" x 10" they weren't kidding

the zeiss website also has a cool looking one:


I suspect that weights and costs a bit more

Some info from a Zeiss slideshow. Zeiss refers to them as projection lenses, they are just one part of the microlitho optical system.

The specs are from 10 years ago! Just noticed the 1000 kg spec

Come to think of it, I have lots of Nikon Microlitho optics images from the last trips to the Nikon Museum outside Tokyo.

[Lou Jost]

Such beautiful optical technology.

[RobertOToole]

Such beautiful optical technology.

Yes it is.

I still cant get over the 1080 kg!

Nikon has some awesome displays in Japan. I can just imagine what ASML is working on since Nikon doesn't compete any longer.

The current EUV technology uses reflected light/mirrors.

https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-li ... n-nxe3400c

From the above:

Optics
The NXE:3400C features an all-reflective 4x reduction lens assembly from Zeiss with a maximum exposure field of 26 x 33 mm.

The system is equipped with projection optics with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.33 and an illuminator with an operating range sigma of 0.06–1 to maintain high productivity while enabling low k1 and a resolution of 13 nm. In-situ measurement and corrections per wafer of the optics and stages enable maximum imaging, overlay and CDU performance for each wafer exposed when imaging at low k1.

03. Imaging performance
The NXE:3400C can achieve a dedicated chuck overlay of 1.4 nm and a matched-machine overlay of 1.5 nm.

[RobertOToole]

Such beautiful optical technology.

Take a look at this...wow!


This video actually explains whats going on in the other two videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0gMdGrVteI&

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skUCP2f ... annel=ASML




and this:




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdMRUG ... annel=ASML

[Lou Jost]

I want one!!!!

That depiction of the light path is crazy. I had no idea things had gotten that complex.

projection optics with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.33

I am a little surprised at the low NA. Some of my own visible-light photolithography lenses have larger NA. For example a 10x 0.38 for 436nm light. I am surprised that the NA would go backwards as technology advances.

[Pau]

I am a little surprised at the low NA. ..
... I am surprised that the NA would go backwards as technology advances.

Well, what matters is resolution, not NA itself. The former generation with immersion optics had 1.35 NA and lower resolution, the key as you well know is the shorter wavelength, and the next generation will be 0.55 NA.

Electron microscopes have low NA *(hence the good depth of focus of SEM) but much shorter wavelength

Some of my own visible-light photolithography lenses have larger NA. For example a 10x 0.38 for 436nm light

Will be most interesting if you could show us some sample images taken with them

*around 0.012 for TEM!

[ModelZ]

Fascinating video & else on these magnificient lithigraphy machines. Incidentally it's been lately in news that they are fast becoming the decisive items access to which the industiral superpowers want to control. China has apparently been trying for some time to aquire the latest Japanese and Dutch machines. Presumably to reverse engineer them to be able to upgrade their semiconductor production from bulk to the state of the art printing level (a few nanometers in the densest processor chips). Now the ex-Google honcho Schmidt & his committee would very much like to curb that access. Reminds me of the similar development with top CNC mills some years ago (needed for silent sub propellers). So maybe we won't see in the future too many details of the inner workings of these wonders... all classified stuff.

[RobertOToole]

Fascinating video & else on these magnificient lithigraphy machines. Incidentally it's been lately in news that they are fast becoming the decisive items access to which the industiral superpowers want to control. China has apparently been trying for some time to aquire the latest Japanese and Dutch machines. Presumably to reverse engineer them to be able to upgrade their semiconductor production from bulk to the state of the art printing level (a few nanometers in the densest processor chips). Now the ex-Google honcho Schmidt & his committee would very much like to curb that access. Reminds me of the similar development with top CNC mills some years ago (needed for silent sub propellers). So maybe we won't see in the future too many details of the inner workings of these wonders... all classified stuff.

From what I've read mainland Chinese military has hacked into Taiwan's leading manufacturer, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSMC) in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Google brings up 100s of stories on reports of that. this is one:

Google brings this up: https://www.cyberscoop.com/cycraft-taiw ... black-hat/

[Lou Jost]

It used to be illegal to export these photolithography lenses.

[ModelZ]

A good summary of ASML's (and implicitly e.g. Zeiss') role in this tech/political game:
www.brookings.edu/techstream/the-chip-m ... -concerns/

Hitech doesn't get much higher than this. Rather humbling to know that both Canon and Nikon are in this business but can't match ASML by quite a stretch.