Nikon's new $37 million factory in Japan will begin producing CaF₂ materials this month. The Japanese lithography giant will use the materials to make lenses for its new exposure tools based on 193-nanometer argon-fluoride (ArF) laser technology.

The company is expected to roll out the new 193-nm tools based on its own lens material by the end of this year, according to spokeswoman for the company.

The CaF₂ plant is key to Nikon's success in the market. Over the last two years, Nikon shipped 19 ArF-based tools in the market. But the company hopes to ship 20 units in 2001 and 40 systems in 2002, according to Nikon.

Other lithography equipment suppliers are also developing their own lens material as well. Last year, Canon Inc. of Japan announced plans to build new $40 million plant to make CaF₂ for lenses used in its next-generation 193-nm and 157-nm lithography equipment (see Aug. 25, 2000, story).

Tool vendors are developing alternative sources of lens material for good reason: they are unable to obtain enough CaF₂ from the merchant suppliers in the market.

In fact, in what could become a major problem for chip makers, a chronic and severe shortage of this material for lithography lenses is delaying the shipments of new 193-nm exposure tools, according to sources at the recent SPIE Microlithography conference in San Jose (see March 2 story).

ASM Lithography, Canon, and Nikon have been shipping their respective 193-nm tools in small quantities for R&D purposes since 1999. But vendors are still unable to deliver these high-priced systems in large volumes to their chip customers--most of which are currently attempting to step up their use of 193-nm tool for production purposes, sources said.

Chip makers are able to extend the life of their existing krypton-fluoride, 248-nm lithography tools, but these older-generation systems are quickly running out of steam. While some experts believe that 248-nm tools will process devices down to 0.13-micron or so, the newer 193-nm scanners are geared to more easily deliver chips at 0.10-micron and below node.

Tool vendors blame the 193-nm shipment problems on suppliers of CaF₂, which is in severe shortages. At present, the merchant suppliers of CaF₂ material include Corning Inc., Saint-Gobain Crystals & Detectors and Schott ML GmbH.

But most, if not, all of these merchant suppliers cannot keep up with OEM demand for this critical material, analysts said. The CaF₂ lens material is required to hold up under the higher concentrated heat generated by new and advanced ArF excimer lasers. Traditional quartz glass lenses, used in the current 248-nm generation of exposure tools, do not provide high transmittance at 193-nm wavelength, analysts said.