Extreme ultraviolet lithography

Extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL, also known simply as EUV) is a new technology used in the semiconductor industry for manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs). It is a type of photolithography that uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light to create intricate patterns on silicon wafers.

As of 2023^[update], ASML Holding is the only company that produces and sells EUV systems for chip production, targeting 5 nanometer (nm) and 3 nm process nodes.

The EUV wavelengths that are used in EUVL are near 13.5 nanometers (nm), using a laser-pulsed tin (Sn) droplet plasma (Sn ions in the ionic states from Sn IX to Sn XIV give photon emission spectral peaks around 13.5 nm from 4p⁶4dⁿ - 4p⁵4dⁿ⁺¹ + 4d^n-14f ionic state transitions.^[1]), to produce a pattern by using a reflective photomask to expose a substrate covered by photoresist.