Lasertec is a manufacturer of semiconductor mask inspection systems with a long history and abundant experience in this field. The company developed the world’s first automated photomask inspection system in 1976. The current series of mask inspection system, MATRICS Series, is widely used among wafer fabs and mask shops worldwide and renowned for its high detection performance.

EUV lithography is the most advanced semiconductor lithography being introduced to commercial production at leading-edge fabs to enable the further scaling of device patterns. To meet a whole range of requirements for EUV mask inspection, Lasertec released BASIC Series EUV Mask Backside Inspection and Cleaning System in 2013, ABICS E120 EUV Mask Blanks Inspection and Review System in 2017, and MATRICS X8ULTRA Series Mask Inspection System in 2018.

As the development of an actinic EUV patterned mask inspection system has remained one of the major challenges for the industry to complete the tooling set needed for EUV mask making to drive and support wafer yield, Lasertec is proud to close the gap in time for EUV adoption in High Volume Manufacturing.

The newly developed ACTIS A150 is the world’s first actinic EUV patterned mask inspection system. It draws on the expertise Lasertec has accumulated through many years of experience in patterned mask inspection and inspection with EUV light. Since EUV has a much shorter wavelength than deep ultraviolet (DUV), ACTIS A150 achieves extremely high defect sensitivity, delivering far greater performance than conventional mask inspection systems using DUV laser. Another key advantage of ACTIS A150 is its capability to detect printable defects not detectable with DUV-based mask inspection systems, including phase defects unique to EUV masks.

Lasertec will provide a whole range of EUV mask inspection systems to support leading-edge manufacturers adopting EUV lithography in commercial production, thereby facilitating technological advancements in the semiconductor industry.