By: Abhay Ratti, Alexander Yevchenko, Khushi Sharma, Surya Sure

<aside> 💡 Problem Statement: Extreme Ultra-Violet Lithography Machines are at the core of manufacturing bleeding-edge computer chips but are only 5% efficient in photon-wafer transfer.

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Computer chips provide an important aspect in anyone’s life today: technology. Every modern piece of electronics depends on these chips, making them the new oil according to Chris Miller. As a result, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. China has recently made a financial modification, choosing to spend more money on importing chips than oil. The U.S, on the other hand, has lost its grip as the #1 producer of chips and as a result, potentially its position as the #1 superpower.

It’s important to acknowledge that the US and China are practically locked into a Cold War. This time, the fight isn’t for the Berlin Wall, but the Silicon Wall - in reference to microchips.

These chips are mass-produced on the scale of millions per day. However, due to the growing complexity of chip design requirements, the manufacturing process is becoming more expensive and time-consuming. This trend is forecast to continue as transistor sizes dip below 3 nanometers, requiring specialized equipment and massive amounts of capital to sustain operations.

Manufacturing Chips

Here is a brief overview of each and every component of the manufacturing process. The intention here is to show a pattern in the repetition of one specific task over and over - Lithography.

• Deposition
  • Deposit thin films of materials (conductors, isolators, semiconductors) onto the silicon wafer
• Lithography
  • Coating the wafer with a photosensitive material and exposing it with light inside a Lithography machine
• Exposure in Lithography
  • Inside the Lithography machine, light is projected onto the wafer to print out its specific blueprint design
  • Wherever the light is hitting, a chemical change is occurring
• Computational Lithography
  • The blueprint mentioned above needs to be optimized by algorithmic models with data from machines and test wafers
• Lithographic Baking and Developing
  • In the lithography machine, the wafer is baked and developed to make changes permanent
  • The photoresist is washed away to create a pattern of open spaces
• Lithographic Etching
  • Gases are used to etch away material from the open spaces, leaving a 3d version of the pattern
• Repeat
  • The whole process is gone through as many times as needed until one layer of the wafer is covered in patterns by the Lithography Machine
  • To make an entire chip, the process may need to be repeated up to 100 times

EUV - Mankind’s Greatest Feat of Engineering

The accuracy of the EUV lithography machine is similar to "hitting a coin on earth from the moon with a laser”