October 31, 2011 - BUSINESS WIRE -- USHIO INC.'s (TOKYO:6925) wholly owned subsidiary, XTREME technologies GmbH, achieved 30W output at an intermediate focus under a duty cycle of 100% for high-volume extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.

The company reported this achievement during a presentation in an international conference for EUV lithography -- the 2011 International Symposia on Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography and Lithography Extensions -- held in Miami, FL in late October.

Also read: EUV Symposium report card: EUV's past, present, and future and EUV Symposium: Updates on defects, resists, AIMS, and non-EUV NGL

In February, XTREME technologies reached 15W output at an intermediate focus point under a duty cycle of 100%. Various problems -- debris and thermal processing, etc. -- were solved to reach thes stable 30W output.

The company will further develop the light source with higher output, reporting 100W output at an intermediate focus with a prototype light source," revealed Masaki Yoshioka, EVP and CTO of XTREME technologies.

An EUV light source with an extremely short wavelength of 13.5nm is necessary for 22nm semiconductor fab, Ushio says, and the company has been developing EUV light sources of the Laser-assisted Discharge Plasma (LDP) method, which generates an EUV from a discharged plasma, since the 1990s. USHIO acquired full ownership of XTREME technologies in 2008, and purchased the assets of Phillips Extreme UV in 2010, to aggressively promote the research and development of EUV light sources. Today, USHIO is accelerating development of the LDP EUV source for high-volume production in EUV lithography through XTREME technologies.

XTREME technologies provides lithography laser-assisted discharge plasma (LDP) light sources integrated in EUV scanners. Headquartered in Aachen, Germany, XTREME technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of USHIO INC., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Visit http://www.xtremetec.com/.

USHIO INC. handles a variety of light sources for a broad range of industrial applications, and manufactures and markets products incorporating its own light sources. Visit http://www.ushio.co.jp/en/.

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