EUV LLC Enters Development Agreement with Newly Formed U.S. Advanced Lithography

Extreme ultraviolet lithography, one of several possible post-optical technologies, gained additional backing today. United States Advanced Lithography (USAL), a newly formed limited liability company led by Ultratech Stepper (San Jose, CA), has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with the Extreme Ultraviolet LLC (EUV LLC) to develop EUV lithography tools. The EUV LLC, formed by Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, CA), Motorola (Austin, TX), and Advanced Micro Devices (Sunnyvale, CA) to fund research and to commercialize the technology, had previously signed a development agreement with SVG Lithography (Wilton, CT).

USAL, managed by Arthur W. Zafiropoulo, chairman, CEO and president of Ultratech Stepper, is the first company to focus solely on post-optical lithography. According to Zafiropoulo, "When the transition to post-optical lithography takes place, EUV lithography systems could command a selling price as high as $15 - $20 million each. Many experts agree that EUV is emerging as a main contender in the post-optical lithography era, and as such we believe that USAL is well positioned to take advantage of what could be the future of the IC industry."

Current plans require $50 million in capital funding to develop USAL's prototype EUV system. Zafiropoulo noted that although now in its initial stages of development, USAL is designed to become a fully equipped company serving the primary functions of system integration, test, marketing, sales and service. USAL's primary charter is to produce a sufficient volume of systems to satisfy the domestic market, particularly the needs of the EUV LLC members.

Director of EUV LLC Business Programs Sander H. Wilson noted, "The EUV LLC and its member companies--Intel, AMD and Motorola--have been aggressively developing EUV technology in a CRADA partnership with the Virtual National Laboratory, which has been formed among representatives from Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley and Sandia National Laboratories. USAL's participation is logical and welcomed since Ultratech has been an early participant and advocate of this technology."

According to EUV LLC officials, the proof of concept test system for EUV lithography will be built at Sandia National Laboratories over the next two years and will be used to demonstrate the lithographic potential of the technology.