Milestone-Proposal talk:Development of 193-nm Projection Photolithography

Original Citation Title and Text -- Administrator4 (talk) 16:12, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

Development of 193-nm Projection Photolithography, 1984-1996

MIT Lincoln Laboratory pioneered R&D, engineering, testing, and demonstration of 193-nm projection lithography, the semiconductor manufacturing technology that has since become mainstream worldwide. During 1984–1996, Lincoln Laboratory became an international center of excellence, which, in collaboration with industrial partners and consortia, helped guide early-stage semiconductor manufacturing with 193 nm and paved the way to widespread adoption of this technology.

Advocate questionnaire -- Gilcooke (talk) 15:29, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Questionaire for 2022-4

Advocate Questionnaire

1) Is the proposal for an achievement rather than for a person? YES

2) Is the proposed achievement a significant advance vs. an incremental improvement to an existing technology? YES

3) Were there prior or contemporary achievements of a similar nature? NO

4) Has the achievement (or the particular version of the technology being proposed) truly led to a functioning, useful, or marketable technology? YES

5) Is the proposal adequately supported by significant references and citations, (minimum of five) such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or citations to pages in scholarly books? At least one of the references shall be from a scholarly book or journal article. The text of the material, not just the references, shall YES, YES,…

6) Are the scholarly references recent? YES

7) Does the proposed citation fulfill the requirements? Yes according to experts yes again.

8) Does the proposed plaque site fulfill the requirements? YES

9) Is the proposal of suitable quality, comparable to IEEE publications? YES

10) Are the scientific and technical units correct? (e.g. km, mm, hertz, etc.) Are acronyms correct and properly uppercased or lowercased? YES

Expert Review from Jamie D. Phillips -- Gilcooke (talk) 15:31, 9 October 2022 (UTC)

Dear Gilmore,

Thank you for the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the nomination of Development of 193-nm Projection Photolithography for an IEEE Milestone. The following are my comments related to the requested three aspects of the proposal.

1) Is the suggested wording of the Plaque Citation accurate?

Yes, I believe that the plaque citation is fully accurate, and captures the technical contribution for the IEEE Milestone.

2) Is the evidence presented in the proposal of sufficient substance and accuracy to support the Citation?

Yes. The evidence describes the invention and development of 193-nm Projection Lithography at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and provides a clear historical outline of the milestones that occurred as a part of that development. These included several breakthroughs at MIT Lincoln Laboratory over approximately a decade, including the generation of patterns using 193-nm projection sources, development of photoresist technology, and demonstration of the technology to fabricate electronic devices. The evidence is well documented in the science and engineering literature through peer-reviewed publications. In particular, this spans all the way from the early demonstration of high-resolution patterning with 193 nm projection lithography (D.J. Ehrlich, J.Y. Tsao, and C.O. Bozler, “Submicrometer patterning by projected excimer-laser-beam induced chemistry,” Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-8, Jan/Feb 1985) to the later stages of demonstrating that 193 nm lithography would serve as a practical solution to high-resolution patterning for semiconductor device manufacturing (M. Rothschild, J.A. Burns, S.G. Cann, A.R. Forte, C.L. Keast, R.R. Kunz, S.C. Palmateer, J.H.C. Sedlacek, R. Uttaro, A. Grenville, and D. Corliss, “How practical is 193 nm lithography?” Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 4157-4161, Nov/Dec 1996.).

3) Does the proposed milestone represent a significant technical achievement?

Yes. Today's computer age, information age, and the Internet of Things is all based on the foundational semiconductor microelectronics technology. The progression of semiconductor technology and Moore's Law have relied on the ability to scale device dimensions. The 193 nm projection lithography work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory was a milestone in providing a new approach to reducing feature sizes (device dimensions) to the submicron region, was widely adopted by the semiconductor industry, and paved the way to enable the progression of Moore's Law and the broad impact of semiconductor microelectronics.

Best Regards, Jamie

-- University of Delaware Jamie D. Phillips (he/him/his) Professor and Department Chair Electrical and Computer Engineering Department University of Delaware 142 Evans Hall, Newark, DE 19716 jphilli@udel.edu

Expert review number 2 -- Uploaded on behalf of Advocate by Administrator4 (talk) 16:12, 18 November 2022 (UTC)

Assessment of Proposed IEEE Milestone: Development of 193-nm Projection Photolithography; Docket 2022-04 Review by Chris Mack, Fractilia (chris.mack@fractilia.com)

I strongly support the awarding of this milestone. 1) Is the suggested wording of the Plaque Citation accurate? Yes, the wording is accurate. 2) Is the evidence presented in the proposal of sufficient substance and accuracy to support the Citation? Yes, though there is still more that could be said. I would also note that the MIT Lincoln Labs 193nm program enabled their subsequent work on 193nm immersion lithography, which also proved to be an influential development for the industry. 3) Does the proposed milestone represent a significant technical achievement? For over 50 years, Moore’s Law has relied on the economically viable scaling of device feature sizes to dramatically improve semiconductor capabilities while simultaneously lowering cost, ushering in one of the most profound changes in the history of society: the information age. The most important technology to enable these shrinking device feature sizes has been optical lithography, the projection printing technique that enables an entire chip to be printed in a fraction of a second at resolutions that are a fraction of the wavelength of light. During the nearly 50 years of lithography tool and process development, the cost per unit area being printed has remained roughly constant as the number of transistors per unit area has grown by many orders of magnitude – a remarkable achievement. One of the critical components of this lithography evolution has been the reduction of wavelength, beginning at the blue wavelength of 436 nm, then progressing into the ultraviolet with 365, 248, and then 193 nm. Only in the last few years has a successor wavelength, the Extreme UV wavelength of 13.5 nm, become available. The wavelength that has had the most enduring impact on the industry has been 193nm. As this proposal makes clear, MIT Lincoln Labs was a critical early developer of 193nm lithography technology. I lived through those years and personally saw the influence of their 193nm program on the industry – it was extremely important, timely, and effective. As the proposal makes clear, competing commercial interests fought for resources to develop other lithography approaches. The availability of the scientists, facilities, and resources of MIT Lincoln Labs for foundational research and development at 193nm was exactly what the industry needed to recognize the importance of this lithography approach. Would 193 nm lithography have been developed without MIT Lincoln Labs? Probably, though with much delay and at a dramatic cost to the health and well-being of Moore’s Law and the semiconductor industry.

Advocate approval -- Uploaded on behalf of advocate by Administrator4 (talk) 18 November 2022

Please insert this Attached Word Memo from Chris Mark … my last and final expert reviewer for the proposal Docket 2022-04. Then I see no reason why you cannot forward this wonderful proposal forward to its ultimate approval.

Gil Cooke, Advocate

Re: Advocate approval -- GeoffT (talk) 20:18, 13 December 2022 (UTC)

Where is the document located? I don't see a link.

Update per IEEE History Committee meeting on 12/14/22 -- Joe Campbell (talk) 05:55, 23 January 2023 (UTC)

The proposers appreciate the IEEE History Committee's valuable feedback from their 12/14/22 meeting. We updated the proposal accordingly by revising the proposed citation.

The original proposed plaque citation was:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory pioneered R&D, engineering, testing, and demonstration of 193-nm projection lithography, the semiconductor manufacturing technology that afterwards became mainstream worldwide. During 1984–1996, Lincoln Laboratory became an international center of excellence, which, in collaboration with industrial partners and consortia, helped guide early-stage semiconductor manufacturing with 193-nm and paved the way to widespread adoption of this technology.

The revised proposed plaque citation is (as of 1/23/23):
MIT Lincoln Laboratory pioneered the research, development, and demonstration of 193-nm projection lithography. This technology became the dominant high-resolution patterning technique for integrated circuits, enabling continuous performance scaling for the last 25 years. During 1984–1996, Lincoln Laboratory established an international research center with industrial partners and consortia to guide microelectronic chip manufacturing with 193-nm lithography and paved the way for its widespread commercial adoption.

Update per IEEE History Center recommendations -- Joe Campbell (talk) 04:06, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

Based on recommendations from the IEEE History Center's Research Coordinator on 1/22/23 to improve timelessness, we changed the second sentence of the citation to be more timeless, "This technology became the dominant high-resolution patterning technique, enabling the continuous performance scaling of integrated circuits for decades." The proposed 63-word plaque citation now reads:

MIT Lincoln Laboratory pioneered the research, development, and demonstration of 193-nm projection lithography. This technology became the dominant high-resolution patterning technique, enabling the continuous performance scaling of integrated circuits for decades. During 1984–1996, Lincoln Laboratory established an international research center with industrial partners and consortia to guide microelectronic chip manufacturing with 193-nm lithography and paved the way for its widespread commercial adoption.

Re: Update per IEEE History Center recommendations -- Amy Bix (talk) 19:50, 29 January 2023 (UTC)

very minor rewording suggestion for readability - the last sentence is a bit of a run-on - I would recommend changing the last part of the last sentence to read: "international research center with industrial partners and consortia to guide microelectronic chip manufacturing with 193-nm lithography, which paved the way for its widespread commercial adoption."

Re: Re: Update per IEEE History Center recommendations -- Jbart64 (talk) 18:05, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Consider that if you use the last sentence as the first sentence, then the name Lincoln Laboratory is needed to convey the concept that this center was created as a place of innovation for research into lithography. Try this:

MIT's Lincoln Laboratory was established as an international research center with industrial partners and consortia to guide microelectronic chip manufacturing with 193-nm lithography. The laboratory pioneered the research, development, and demonstration of 193-nm projection lithography, which paved the way for its widespread commercial adoption. This technology became the dominant high-resolution patterning technique, enabling the continuous performance scaling of integrated circuits for decades.

Dave Bart

Re: Re: Re: Update per IEEE History Center recommendations -- Amy Bix (talk) 21:51, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

Except the sentence "MIT's Lincoln Laboratory was established as an international research center with industrial partners and consortia to guide microelectronic chip manufacturing with 193-nm lithography" makes it sound as if work on lithography was the original and sole purpose for which Lincoln Lab was established (which is not the case, as I understand it - Lincoln Labs has a long and complex history). This version also seems rather repetitive in sentences 1 and 2.