NSR S 621 D Immersion

In a lithography line, this class of tool exposes a photosensitive wafer surface through a patterned optical system so circuit features can be replicated layer by layer.

A lithography scanner projects a circuit pattern from a mask or reticle onto a photoresist-coated wafer using precision optics, motion control, and tightly regulated alignment. Immersion lithography places a fluid between the final projection lens and the wafer to improve imaging performance for small feature patterning.

The scanner steps or scans the wafer in coordination with the projected image so successive exposures can cover the full substrate. Alignment and focus control keep each layer registered to earlier patterned layers.

This type of equipment sits in the front end of semiconductor fabrication, after wafer preparation and photoresist coating, and before development and etch or deposition steps that use the patterned resist as a transfer template.

Its output is a latent image in the resist that defines where later process steps will remove or build material to form device structures.

Immersion lithography scanners are used for advanced integrated-circuit patterning on silicon wafers, including critical layers that require fine feature placement and tight overlay control.

A tool in this class is generally used for high-resolution device fabrication in logic, memory, and other semiconductor manufacturing flows that depend on repeated optical pattern transfer.