SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- It's not too surprising that Intel Corp. expects to become the world's first customer for a next-generation lithography tool based on extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology.

But when will Intel install and put EUV lithography into production? Not soon enough, said Peter J. Silverman, director of lithography capital equipment at Intel.

"When will we need EUV?" he asked during his presentation at the SPIE Microlithography Conference here today (Feb. 27). "I believe in 2004, but we don't expect to have an EUV system until 2005."

Intel hopes to accelerate the timetable for EUV--and for good reason: the learning curves are enormous for new lithography technologies, according to Silverman. "There's a period of four years to put a tool in production," he estimated.

It's still unclear when EUV will produce devices in volumes. However, there are other reasons why Intel and other chip makers are pressing harder to get their hands on next-generation lithography tools. "We are running out of steam with conventional lithography tools," he said.

Silverman acknowledged that Intel has ordered the world's first EUV-based system, but it's unclear when the company will take delivery of the system. "The gating factor is how fast the equipment vendors can develop the technology," he said.

The current EUV system is being developed by the U.S.-based Extreme Ultraviolet LLC consortium. This group, which has been pushing EUV technology as the next-generation lithography (NGL) tool for some time, includes Intel, Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola, and U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories. The consortium has produced a working alpha tool using EUV, and now it is stepping up development of a system capable of generating 0.07-micron features by the end of 2002, Silverman said (see today's story).

The EUV consortium hopes to transfer the technology to ASM Lithography of the Netherlands, which will sell the system in the commercial market.