We will now continue with our article on Mercury arc Lamps.

LAMP DEVELOPMENT
Some of the lamp development shown in the arc lamp time line seen in the next table.

The earliest lamp used in microelectronics is the 200W and through the years power levels progressed to 350W, 500W, 750W, 1000W and now 2,000W and 2,500W.
Photofabrication (ref 3) was introduced into the electronics industry in the 1930s with the advent of screen printing for the fabrication of resistors. In the 1950s the direct application of a photographically developed pattern to the processing of printed circuit boards. The late 1950s saw the use of Hg arc lamps in the fabrication of Color Television. These air cooled BH6 and water cooled AH6 Capillary types are still used today in the TV industry.
From an economic point of view, it has been reported that in 1998 over 10% of the investment in semiconductor production is on exposure systems such as wafer steppers and Step and Scan Systems.
Today we find excimer laser systems being used to print small features. It is interesting to note that the KrF excimer laser is used to achieve 248nm radiation to achieve a smaller feature size from that obtained with the I-Line (365nm) Hg lamps. and that Deep UV Hg lamps can supply UV emission in 210nm to 250nm region. New optical techniques and masking have allowed the I -line technology to print features below 0.2 microns.

MICRO-DISPLAY NEWS

Colorado MicroDisplay has declared they are now ready to begin volume manufacturing with partner Hana MicroDisplay Technologies, Inc., who is also the foundry for Philips. See Chris Chinnock's report at chinnock@mdreport.com for more info.