The evolution of the excimer laser from a research tool in the 1970's to the industrial models of the 1980's has opened up numerous applications in semiconductor manufacturing, corneal surgery genetic research and material processing in many fields. Microprocessor controlled laser systems, including computer-controlled delivery systems, will now run for up to 50 million shots before undergoing scheduled maintenance. The energy is delivered to a tolerance of +10% in most cases. While many uses for the excimer laser are still research oriented, the production applications are rapidly emerging. The continued reduction of VLSI circuit geometries together with increasingly higher levels of circuit integration create the demand for new circuit fabrication technologies. One of limitations of current IC fabrication technology is the use of high temperature processing. High temperatures distort silicon wafers, causing loss of resolution and alignment control and a subsequent reduction of device yield. Excimer laser technology, at very short ultra-violet wavelengths, offers the possibility of low temperature processing, including the following major applications: Photoresist exposure, photoresist ablation over alignment marks, annealing and doping, and etching. In addition, applications in IC packaging, circuit personalization and fiber optics appear as very promising new applications for excimer laser technology in the electronics industry.

Date Published: 12 July 1988
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 0894, Gas Laser Technology, (12 July 1988); doi: 10.1117/12.944387

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0894:
Gas Laser Technology
Peter P. Chenausky; Roland A. Sauerbrey; James H. Tillotson, Editor(s)