The Driving Force in the Semiconductor Industry

"Moore's Law" is well-known and widely used in the semiconductor industry term to describe the advancement in semiconductor device technology. First observed by Intel Corporation co-founder and former chairman Gordon E. Moore in 1965, the empirical theory predicts that the transistor density onintegrated circuits (ICs) increases exponentially, doubling approximately every two years with proportionate decreases in cost. This prediction has held true since then andis a driving force oftechnology advancements worldwide.

To continue to meet Moore's Law, the length and width of a transistor must shrink about 30% every 18 months. The ability to pattern smaller circuits depends on the wavelength of the light used in the photolithography process. A shorter wavelength of light can image circuitry with smaller critical dimensions (CDs) and pitch, which in turn allows the transistors to be smaller and transistor density to increase.

Since the introduction of its first Deep Ultraviolet (DUV) light source, Cymer has played a significant role in the advance of integrated circuit manufacturing.Cymer has worked to continuouslyimprove light source performance, enabling theapplication of its light sources to pattern ever smaller circuitry. As lithography continues to extend Moore's Law, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography will succeed double-patterning ArF immersion lithography allowing the scaling of feature sizes and half-pitch to 22nm and beyond.

Furtherinformation on Moore's Law can be found on the Intel Corporation website.

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Moore's Law - Cymer, Inc.