All-Solid-State Drivers for High Power Excimer Lasers Used in Projection Gas Immersion Laser Doping

The objective of this SBIR program is to develp all-solid-state pulsed modulators to drive the high power excimer (XeCl or XeF) lasers required to commercialize the Projcetion Gas Immersion Laser Doping (P-GILD) process. P-GILD uses a pulsed, 200-watt-class excimer laser as an illumination source to produce ultra-shallow, low-sheet resistance, box-like and retrograde impurity profiles in silicon without the use of high temperature anneals or conventional ion implantation. P-GILD thus meets all of the criteria for fabricating optimized deep-submicron devices. The P-GILD process requires a factor-of-20 scale up in average power from the production-worthy excimer laser technology now developed for 0.25 micron DUV lithography. It was only through the use of all-solid-state pulsed drivers that the 10 watt KrF lasers recently developed for DUV lithography were able to achieve the component lifetimes and cost of ownership required to make these lasers economically viable. In Phase I, SRL will work closely with Cymer Laser Technologies, the leading supplier of excimer lasers for DUV lithography worldwide, and Ultratech Stepper, the developer of the P-GILD process, to develop a detailed engineering design of an all-solid-state driver for a 200-watt excimer laser designed to meet P-GILD process requirements. In the Phase II effort, SRL will develop and deliver this prototype excimer laser driver to Cymer for integration on a high power excimer laser head and for extensive test and evaluation.