Applied Materials Clears Critical Roadblock to EUV Lithography with New Photomask Etch System

Applied Materials, Inc. advanced the state-of-the art in photomask technology with its new Applied Centura Tetra EUV Advanced Reticle Etch system. Overcoming a major hurdle to the adoption of EUV1 lithography, the new Tetra EUV system solves the critical and unmet challenge of etching the new EUVL photomasks with nanometer-level accuracy and world-class defect performance to enable the fabrication of multiple new generations of high-performance semiconductor chips.

“Our new Tetra EUV system expands the capabilities of Applied’s industry-standard Tetra etch platform, which is used by the great majority of advanced mask makers today,” said Ajay Kumar, vice president and general manager of the Mask and TSV2 Etch product division at Applied Materials. “Applied continues to invest in technologies that are important to our customers and will enable next-generation design nodes. We have already shipped multiple systems and we are working closely with virtually every leading mask maker to help the semiconductor industry accommodate this significant technology inflection.”