Bright Discharge Plasma Sources For X-Ray Lithography

There are substantial advantages to bright plasma sources for submicron X-ray lithography. For example, throughputs of 40 wafer levels per hour can be maintained using existing, high resolution, single level resists. The high X-ray brightness of the discharge plasma source is achieved by operating at much higher energy density than conventional sources. The X-rays are emitted from a high temperature plasma, which is magnetically confined and dissipates its energy isotropically. Over the last two years, a significant effort at Maxwell Laboratories has been carried out to characterize the Z-pinch plasma source for applications such as lithography and microscopy. The technology has been brought to the point where high reliability, commercially available sources have been developed for X-ray microscopy. The state-of-the-art is discussed and projections are provided on the capabilities of high power bright discharge sources for lithographic applications.