Here, we explore exactly what EUV is and why it is so integral to developing next-generation chips.

What is EUV?

In the semiconductor industry, EUV refers to extreme ultraviolet lithography, a technology that is expected to bring a radical progress to one of the most important steps in semiconductor manufacturing, photolithography.

When producing semiconductor chips, silicon-based round disks, called “wafers” are coated with a light-sensitive substance and enter a system called a “scanner.” Inside the scanner, a laser light source is cast onto the wafers to create patterns of circuitries, which later are used for forming billions of ultrafine, microscopically small structures, inside a semiconductor chip. This process, while described very concisely, is known as photolithography.

Photo of a tall, box-shaped EUV scanner (courtesy of ASML)

With EUV technology, an EUV system, or EUV scanner, will now be able to perform the photolithography step by utilizing a light source with an “extreme ultraviolet” wavelength. In the world of chip manufacturing, realizing finer circuits is a must, as it enables integration of a greater number of components inside a chip and therefore building faster and more energy efficient chip.

The utilization of an EUV light source will allow for defining finer and denser patterns than previous methods because of its shorter wavelength, which is essential since light isn’t able to directly define features smaller than its own wavelength. Upcoming EUV scanners will, specifically, utilize EUV radiation at a 13.5-nanometer wavelength, less than 1/10th of what current ArF excimer laser scanners are able to provide.

How will EUV be implemented?

Today, semiconductor chips are being used in almost every electronic device imaginable, and EUV technology will be utilized to produce the most advanced semiconductors for mobile, server, network and supercomputing applications.

For its part, Samsung plans to utilize EUV starting with its 7-nanometer LPP (Low Power Plus) process, a cutting-edge technology that the company expects to apply by the second half of 2018. Samsung’s new fabrication line in Hwaseong, which will be ready for production in 2020, will also be set up with EUV technology to provide leading-edge semiconductor products to global market.

Using 7LPP EUV process technology, Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will offer a smaller chip footprint, giving OEMs more usable space inside upcoming products to support larger batteries or slimmer designs. Process improvements, combined with a more advanced chip design, are expected to bring significant improvements in battery life.

Last May, Samsung introduced 7LPP EUV, its first semiconductor process technology to use an EUV lithography solution. It is anticipated that EUV lithography deployment will break the barriers of Moore’s law scaling, paving the way for single nanometer semiconductor technology generations.

Compared with its 10nm FinFET predecessors, Samsung’s 7LPP EUV technology not only greatly reduces the process complexity with fewer process steps and better yield, but also allows up to a 40 percent increase in area efficiency with 10 percent higher performance or up to 35 percent lower power consumption.

“We are excited to lead the 5G mobile industry together with Samsung,” said RK Chunduru, senior vice president, supply chain and procurement, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Using 7nm LPP EUV, our new generation of Snapdragon 5G mobile chipsets will take advantage of the process improvements and advanced chip design to improve the user experience of future devices.”

“We are pleased to continue to expand our foundry relationship with Qualcomm Technologies in 5G technologies using our EUV process technology,” said Charlie Bae, Executive Vice President of Foundry Sales and Marketing Team at Samsung Electronics. “This collaboration is an important milestone for our foundry business as it signifies confidence in Samsung’s leading process technology.”

Samsung Electronics’ Foundry manufacturing line located in Hwaseong, Korea

Through further scaling from the earlier 14LPP process, 11LPP delivers up to 15 percent higher performance and up to 10 percent chip area reduction with the same power consumption.

In addition to the 10nm FinFET process for mobile processors in premium flagship smartphones, the company expects its 11nm process to bring differentiated value to mid- to high-end smartphones.

The new process technology is scheduled to be ready for production in the first half of 2018.

Samsung also confirmed that development of 7LPP with EUV (extreme ultra violet) lithography technology is on schedule, targeting its initial production in the second half of 2018.

Since 2014, Samsung has processed close to 200,000 wafers with EUV lithography technology and, building on its experience, has recently seen visible results in process development such as achieving  80 percent yield for 256 megabit (Mb) SRAM (static random-access memory).

“Samsung has added the 11nm process to our roadmap to offer advanced options for various applications,” said Ryan Lee, Vice President and Head of Foundry Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “Through this, Samsung has completed a comprehensive process roadmap spanning from 14nm to 11nm, 10nm, 8nm, and 7nm in the next three years.”

Details of the recent update to Samsung’s foundry roadmap, including 11LPP availability and 7nm EUV development, will be elaborated at the Samsung Foundry Forum Japan on September 15, 2017, in Tokyo. The Samsung Foundry Forum was held in the United States and South Korea earlier this year, sharing Samsung’s cutting-edge process technologies with global customers and partners.