Abstract
Development history of excimer lasers for lithography whose wavelengths are 248 nm and 193 nm is described. The history of key components development for lithography is described in detail. The detailed technologies include spectral line narrowing, discharge in high pressure toxic gas, pulsed power circuit with solid state switching device, high repetition rate excitation technology by reducing shockwave in the chamber, shorter wavelength technology in deep UV region (λ < 250 nm), and injection lock technology by using two excimer lasers. As the result during last 40 years excimer laser technology dramatically expanded its market especially in the application for lithography.
Another application is excimer laser annealing for LCD panel. And the requirement to micromachining in terms of dimensions is becoming smaller and smaller. Recently feature size of processing became less than 100 μm. The excimer laser annealing is key technology for liquid crystal display manufacturing.
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Mizoguchi, H., Oga, T., Kakizaki, K., Fujimoto, J., Fechner, B. (2021). Excimer Lasers for Lithography and Annealing. In: Sugioka, K. (eds) Handbook of Laser Micro- and Nano-Engineering. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63647-0_53
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