Exitech enters NGL race, plans to ship EUV tool to Sematech in late 2003

Exitech enters NGL race, plans to ship EUV tool to Sematech in late 2003
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- There is a new and surprising player in the next-generation lithography (NGL) market. Little-known Exitech Ltd. of the United Kingdom is quietly entering the NGL market, by developing a tool based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, according to officials at the SPIE Microlithography conference here today.

One of the first customers for Exitech's EUV tool is International Sematech, an R&D organization in Austin, Tex. At SPIE today, a representative from Sematech presented a paper about the organization's efforts in NGL, including EUV.

During the presentation, Sematech disclosed that it has ordered one of the first EUV tools from Exitech. The U.S. organization also described the details of Exitech's so-called "EUV Micro Exposure Tool," a two-mirror unit that can reportedly develop chips at the 35-nm (0.035-micron) and below.

The tool is also based on an advanced lens technology, which was co-developed by Germany's Carl Zeiss SMT AG and a U.S.-led EUV consortium called the Extreme Ultraviolet LLC.

Exitech is still developing the tool and is expected to ship a product by the fourth quarter of 2003, said Giang Dao, co-director of lithography at Sematech. Representatives from Oxford-based Exitech could not be reached for comment.

Exitech--a little-known supplier of laser products and 157-nm lithography tools for R&D applications--is moving into the high stakes NGL race.

The company is not expected to compete against the major lithography-tool vendors in EUV, such as ASML, Canon, and Nikon, according to analysts. But instead, Exitech will reportedly focus on the R&D side of EUV lithography, according to analysts.

Sematech intends to use Exitech's tool for "resist development purposes," Dao said. "It's an early tool for R&D," he said in an interview at SPIE.

Sematech and Exitech are no strangers to each other. In the past, the U.K. company has developed and shipped 193- and 157-nm lithography tools to Sematech for R&D purposes. The U.K.-based company has also shipped a 157-nm tool to Semiconductor Leading Edge Technologies Ltd. (Selete), an R&D organization based in Japan.