5500/80

The ASML 5500/80 is an i-line wafer stepper used in photolithography. The ASML 5500/80 is set up for 4-inch wafers and is convertible to 3-inch or 6-inch platforms. The ASML 5500/80 has 500 nm resolution, alignment accuracy of less than 70 nm, a 21 mm x 21 mm field size, and 1.3 µm depth of focus.^[1][2][3]

A wafer stepper projects a mask pattern onto photoresist-coated wafers through reduction optics. A wafer stepper exposes one field at a time and then moves the wafer to repeat the pattern across the surface. Photolithography tools of this class are used to define patterned resist images for later processing.

Photolithography steppers sit in the patterning portion of wafer fabrication. Photolithography steppers are used after resist coating and wafer preparation, and before development and pattern transfer into underlying films by etch, lift-off, implantation, or deposition-related sequence steps.

Wafer steppers are used to print repeating device and test patterns onto photoresist on semiconductor and microfabrication substrates. Wafer steppers support process flows that require controlled overlay and field-by-field exposure for structures later formed in conductive, dielectric, or semiconducting layers.