1.Wafers are cut from a block of very pure crystalline silicon.
2.Polishing
3.Material deposition or modification
4.The Photo Lacquer is applied to a spinning wafer in order to acquire a uniform layer.
5.The chip patterns are burnt into the Photo Lacquer using a light stepper.
6.Development of the print by etching and heating
7.Ion implantation
8.The Photo Lacquer is removed.
9.The wafer processing cycle is completed and a chip layer is manufactured.
10.Repeat thirty to forty times
11.Once all the cycles are completed, the chips are cut out of the wafer and tested.
12.Finally, the chips are fitted with a special plastic container in another plant.
•157 nm Wavelength in the far UV range. 157 nm sources were supposed to succeed 193 nm sources, but immersion made them unnecessary.
•193 nm Wavelength in the far UV range. This is now in standard use for the production of the most advanced chips. Preceded by 248 nm. See DUV and immersion.
•450 mm Diameter of wafers a size bigger than the current sizes in use (i.e. 200 mm and 300 mm). Major chip manufacturers want larger wafers, but device makers and other players have not indicated whether they want to support this initiative. ASML also has no official position as yet.
•ASML Stands for ASM Lithography, a name that reminds us of its joint founder, ASM International. The other founder is Philips.
•Alignment Alignment of the wafer and the lens in order to make the overlay (see above) as small as possible. ASML made a name for itself in the eighties due to an alignment system based on a reference mark, a symbol that is still discernible in the company logo.
•Brion American specialist in optical modelling, acquired by ASML in 2007.
•Clean room Dust-free room. Necessary for the manufacture of semi-conductor chips.
•Computational lithography Umbrella term for computer-assisted techniques to improve lithographic performance.
•CD (Critical dimension) The smallest details of an image. One of the key parameters used in describing a lithographic image and its quality.
•Die A naked chip (i.e. before it is coated in plastic). (plural: dies or dice)
•DRAM Dynamic Random Access Memory, a memory that loses its data when power is shut down. DRAM makers (such as Samsung) are an important group of customers for ASML.
•Double patterning (also known as DP) A technique in which a chip layer is built up in two steps because the resolution of the scanner is not sufficient to produce the layer in a single exposure. Economically most attractive option for chip makers; flash memory (see above) manufacturers have no other option. DRAM and logic manufacturers hope that EUV arrives on time in order to avoid DP.
•DUV Deep ultraviolet, wavelength range in the far ultraviolet. This is now in standard use for the production of the most advanced chips.
•Excimer laser Light source for DUV scanners.
•EUV Extreme ultraviolet, the wavelength range between roughly one hundred twenty and ten nanometres. In chip manufacture, EUV is used as an abbreviation for EUV lithography (also abbreviated EUVL), i.e. lithography with light of a wavelength of 13.5 nanometres. "This is much lower than the 193 nm that is now being used. The jump in wavelength is required to make images of even smaller structures. EUV lithography is very complex because almost all materials absorb EUV light and thus no lenses can be made for it and the exposure process must take place in a vacuum. ASML expects that the technique shall be put into use after a development process lasting more than a decade.
•Fab Plant where chips are manufactured.
•Farm-Out Outsourcing, not only of production but also the development of components or modules of a machine. Hot topic for ASML and its suppliers.
•Flash memory Memory type that retains data when power is shut down. Flash chips are the furthest along in the development described by Moore's law and thus have the smallest structures (as well as the most systematic). Flash producers are an important group of customers for ASML.
•Photo Lacquer (also known as (photo) resist) Photosensitive material in which the mask pattern is plotted.
•Foundry Chip manufacturer that does not design chips itself but produces the designs of others. Market segment served by ASML.
•Half-pitch Half the distance (in nm) between two identical structures on a chip. Measurement of the size of the chip structures installed on a chip (see: node). Intel uses half-pitch as a marketing term; the specified value does not therefore correspond to the actual half-pitch.
•Holistic Lithography A term coined by ASML for an approach in which the design of the chip, the mask, lithography and metrology are matched with each other in order to obtain an optimal chip manufacturing process.
•I-line Peak at 365 nm in the spectrum of mercury. Until the introduction of lasers as light sources, mercury lamps were used in wafer steppers. The I-line was the last spectral line of mercury that was used and the last non-laser light.
•Immersion Lith