Anamorphic high-NA EUV lithography optics

Abstract

EUV lithography (EUVL) for a limit resolution below 8 nm requires the numerical aperture (NA) of the projection optics to be larger than 0.50. For such a high-NA optics a configuration of 4x magnification, full field size of 26 x 33 mm² and 6’’ mask is not feasible anymore. The increased chief ray angle and higher NA at reticle lead to non-acceptable mask shadowing effects. These shadowing effects can only be controlled by increasing the magnification, hence reducing the system productivity or demanding larger mask sizes. We demonstrate that the best compromise in imaging, productivity and field split is a so-called anamorphic magnification and a half field of 26 x 16.5 mm² but utilizing existing 6’’ mask infrastructure. We discuss the optical solutions for such anamorphic high-NA EUVL.