SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The director of Intel Corp.'s lithography program today (Feb. 27) announced that a consortium has developed and demonstrated the world's first exposure tool based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology. The creation of the EUV system was completed about six to nine months ahead of the program's original schedule.

In a presentation at the SPIE Microlithography Conference here, Peter J. Silverman said the Intel-led Extreme Ultraviolet LLC consortium would accelerate the development of its EUV-based tool for use in developing next-generation devices with features sizes of 0.07 micron and below. The consortium is made up of Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola, and U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories.

The first unit, dubbed the ETS (EUV Test System), is not a production system. A production-worthy EUV system will not appear in the market until 2004 or 2005, said Silverman, who is director of lithography capital equipment at Santa Clara-based Intel. Last year, Intel officials indicated that the EUV consortium would try to accelerate its schedule to produce a prototype in early 2001 (see Aug. 23 story).

Today's disclosure of an EUV system comes on the heels of Nikon Corp. announcing it was accelerating development of electron projection lithography for 0.07-micron (70-nanometer) feature sizes. The Japanese lithography giant said it plans to ship its first EPL production tools by the fourth quarter of 2004 (see Feb. 22 story).

During the lithography conference, both Nikon and EUV supports presented papers on their systems and technology. Silverman grabbed attention at the conference by announcing the initial EUV tool. And much to the surprise of the 200 attendees of the presentation, Silverman said the ETS prototype system was able to now process some rudimentary devices at features sizes of 100 nm (0.10 micron).

"It's running," he said during the presentation. "The ETS system is operational."

Now the group aims to accelerate development of the system by six to nine months to reach the 70-nm milestone, Silverman told the audience. "By year's end, we will have a new set of optics that will demonstrate 70-nm static images," he said.

The initial ETS system still has a ways to go, however. For example, the alpha tool only produces 10 watts of power, but it will need to generate two-to-four times that amount in order to become a viable, production-worthy tool in the market.

When the EUV system does hit the market by 2004 or so, the system will be able to produce devices with feature sizes of 50 nm and below, Silverman said. The throughput of the EUV system will be around 40 to 80 twelve-inch (300-mm) wafers an hour.

Some experts said they believe the price tag for the system will be between $20-to-$30 million per unit.