Huawei Patents Tool To Make Chips Less Than 10 Nanometers

Huawei has patented one component used in EUV lithography systems required to make high-end processors on sub-10 nanometer nodes. It solves the problem of interference patterns created by the ultraviolet light that would otherwise make the wafer uneven, Isaiah Meyersen reported for TechSpot.

Photo Insert: EUV lithography systems are currently made exclusively by Dutch company ASML.

Huawei has solved an issue in the last step of chip manufacturing that's caused by the tiny wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light. Its patent describes an array of mirrors that split the beam of light into multiple sub-beams that collide with their own microscopic mirrors.

Each of those mirrors rotates differently to create different interference patterns in the light so that when they recombine, the interference patterns cancel out to create one uniform beam.

EUV lithography systems are currently made exclusively by Dutch company ASML. EUV lithography relies on the same principles as older forms of lithography but uses light with a wavelength of about 13.5 nm, which is almost an X-ray. ASML generates ultraviolet light from fast-moving droplets of molten tin that are about 25 microns in diameter.

"As they fall," ASML explains, "the droplets are hit first by a low-intensity laser pulse that flattens them into a pancake shape. Then a more powerful laser pulse vaporizes the flattened droplet to create a plasma that emits EUV light. To produce enough light to manufacture microchips, this process is repeated 50,000 times every second."

ASML needed more than €6 billion and 17 years to develop the first batch of EUV lithography machines that could be sold. But before they were finished, the US government pressured the Dutch government into banning exports to China, restricting the nation to the older DUV (deep ultraviolet) technology.

For now, only five companies are using or have announced plans to use ASML EUV lithography systems: Intel and Micron in the US, Samsung and SK Hynix in South Korea, and TSMC in Taiwan.

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