Dive into the field of lithography: uncover new career opportunities in the chip manufacturing industry

Many years later, when every ICer stands at the crossroads of their careers, they will remember 2023, the year that will go down in the history of the semiconductor industry. "Layoffs", "salary cuts" and "dissolution" have become the main theme of this year, and with the rapid increase in chip design practitioners in the past few years, the involution seems to be becoming more and more serious. When all kinds of chaos in the chip industry ensues, we should also take a closer look, what is what the industry really needs, what is valuable, is IC design the only way out for graduates, and what new career opportunities can I still dig in the chip industry if I want to escape from involution?

The opportunity is in chip manufacturing. Throughout the entire semiconductor industry chain, chips are the weakest link in the mainland. Chip manufacturing links are complex, there are thousands of processes, large and small, and there are many kinds of related positions, perhaps some people will say that most of the positions in manufacturing are low-paying, overtime, and poor environment, although for some manufacturing positions, yes, but there are also some positions, not only the salary is nice, but also easier to obtain a sense of professional value, these positions come from the core step of chip manufacturing - lithography.

Chip manufacturing can be divided into eight major steps, and lithography is the most central step in the entire manufacturing process.

Before photolithography, photoresist should be evenly coated on the wafer, and the photoresist is usually spin coated, that is, rotated and applied at the same time to ensure the uniformity of the photoresist.

The photoresist-coated wafer is placed into the lithography machine, and the deep ultraviolet (DUV) or extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light emitted by the light source of the lithography machine passes through the reticle (also known as a reticle), reducing the circuit structure pattern on the reticle and focusing it onto the photoresist layer. After the photoresist receives light, the light-receiving area will undergo a chemical change, and the circuit pattern on the reticle will be engraved onto the photoresist layer, this step is called exposure, as shown in the figure below. The steps after exposure are baking and developing, with the goal of removing the photoresist from areas not covered by the pattern, so that the printed circuit pattern is visible and permanently fixed.

For example, ASML's panoramic lithography solution integrates computational lithography, lithography machines, optical and electron beam metrology, and helps chip manufacturers improve yield and production efficiency cost-effectively.

Computational lithography is the use of mathematics, modeling, simulation, data analysis, and optimization to predict and correct nanoscale chip design problems, mask defects, manufacturing defects and other problems in the lithography manufacturing process before the wafer enters the formal exposure. SourceMask Optimization (SMO) and Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) are two key technologies in computational lithography. Mathematical and physical models and other technologies can enhance the imaging of key patterns and defect-prone patterns, increase the process window, make lithography more accurate, make it possible to further improve the manufacturing process, and effectively continue Moore's law.

Behind the computational lithography is the need for algorithm engineers, software R&D engineers, and field application engineers, and the difficulty of designing large-scale software with such a complex architecture can be imagined, which requires engineers to continuously learn Xi, accumulate experience, and master a large number of programming skills and cutting-edge knowledge to complete. Naturally, the career development ceiling is also very high!

The development of ASML's lithography technology is not achieved overnight, in a country like the Netherlands, which is rich in windmills and tulips, how did ASML, which had only about 30 people in the early days of its establishment, rise? All this starts from the three historical stages of semiconductor development.

The first stage was in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century, that is, the early stage of the development of lithography machines, at the beginning of the invention of integrated circuits, the lithography process was still at the micron level, and the process steps were much simpler than now. Moreover, the basic principle of the lithography machine is as simple as shadow puppetry, that is, the light emitted by the light source is passed through the reticle, and then the circuit on the reticle is printed on the wafer coated with photoresist. The second stage was in the nineties of the twentieth century, when the wavelength of the light source of the lithography machine was stuck at 193 nanometers, and Moore's Law also encountered a crisis, which was a major difficulty faced by the entire semiconductor industry. Genius scientist Lin Benjian added a layer of water or other liquid with a suitable refractive index between the lens and the silicon wafer, and the original 193 nanometer laser could be reduced to 132 nanometers after refraction? In just one year, in 2004, ASML made every effort to catch up with the first lithography machine prototype, and successively won orders from major customers such as IBM and TSMC, and achieved overtaking in the corner technology. The third stage began around the turn of the millennium, in 1997, the U.S. Department of Energy and Intel led the establishment of the EUVLLC (Extreme Ultra Violet Limited Liability Company) consortium, and in the years after ASML joined, the EUVLLC consortium made rapid progress in EUV lithography research. In 2010, ASML shipped the first EUV lithography prototype, the NXE:3100, to Samsung's research facility in South Korea as a research facility, marking the beginning of a new era in lithography technology. Now, with the blessing of panoramic lithography and computational lithography technology, lithography technology has reached a new level!

Today, ASML, as a leader in the industry, has never stopped exploring lithography technology. ASML's panoramic lithography is an iron triangle that integrates precision hardware – scanning lithography machine, computational lithography, optical and electron beam measurement – to enhance the process window, help customers manufacture more advanced chips while reducing delivery time. Among them, the optical and electron beam measurement tools are the quality controllers of panoramic lithography, and the electron beam measurement can find extremely subtle manufacturing defects on a single chip, collect relevant data, and feed back to the lithography machine to complete the measurement and inspection.

From a technical point of view, ASML Audio-Technica expands the seemingly single concept of "lithography" from multiple dimensions to achieve a more complete integrated lithography solution.

In China, each ASML lithography machine exposes an average of nearly 2 million wafers a year, and when they are connected, the length is equivalent to five Huangpu rivers, and when they are superimposed, the height is equivalent to three Oriental Pearl Towers. Almost all of the chips manufactured in our mobile phones and computers are made by ASML lithography machines, although ASML lithography machines are far away from ordinary people, but they are closely related to everyone.

If you have a chance to spend time with the jewel in the crown of industry - lithography machine, if you are willing to accept the challenge of Moore's Law, if you want to join the chip industry and become a pioneer, then lithography-related positions are the best choice. On top of that, longer career paths, work-life balance, innovation and working with a global team are all available here!

Choose ASML and be a person with light in your eyes.

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