Introduction of fully automated EUV pellicle mounter and demounter (EPMD)

Continuous innovations in lithography have led to the advancement of integrated chips for decades. To extend the so-called Moore's Law, chipmakers started to adopt Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUVL) and have extended the use of EUV in their mass production. For the mass production using EUV lithography, EUV pellicles will are essential to prevent unexpected particle-induced yield drop and to promote productivity. However, the structure of the current EUV pellicle is different from that of optical pellicles. Thus, a new type of mounting and demounting system for EUV pellicle is required. The first generation of EUV pellicle mounting and demounting tools allowed chipmakers to handle EUV pellicles at their R&D levels. However, due to many manual processes involved with the first generation, it is necessary to introduce a fully automated tool to increase throughput and minimize particle contamination.