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Canon aims to ship low-cost 'stamp' machine this year to disrupt chipmaking

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Re: Canon aims to ship low-cost 'stamp' machine this year to disrupt chipmaking

#31

Post by nine_k »

RetroTechie wrote: post #28
treffer wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most SOCs are trimmed for cost, which means cheap manufacturing. Especially the system on a chip design for single board computers. Even RPI5s with the Broadcom BCM2712 which is super high volume is 16nm. If they manage to get 5nm in 2026 at low cost than that's the path to take the SOC crown. This could even lead to RISC-V SOCs/SBCs at RPI power and price tag (yeah, still dreaming).

Energy efficiency, high performance, low cost per IC: pick 2.

High absolute performance (Xeon / Epyc scale), maybe.

High performance per watt, why not all three? Smaller transistors take less power to switch, so they likely can be run at a higher frequency without thermal issues. (Of course, a lot of other design considerations apply.)

Re: Canon aims to ship low-cost 'stamp' machine this year to disrupt chipmaking

#33

Post by formerly_proven »

formerly_proven wrote: post #22
ksec wrote: post #4

For those who are not aware, and I think it is important to Note, Canon is not a new entry to the industry. They were actually competing with ASML before they gave up in the early 10s. They are aiming at 5nm in 2025 and extend it to 2nm in 2027+. I guess in real world terms you can add at least 1 year to it even in the most optimistic scenario. I dont expect many logic chips will be using it, given the sunk cost invo…

Canon "exited" the race earlier than that. Canon makes KrF scanners, but chose not to pursue ArF scanners. Nikon and ASML did pursue ArF (which were introduced late 90s/early 2000s), later Nikon chose to not pursue EUV scanners, leaving only ASML in that market.

Oh and just to clarify, by "Nikon chose to not pursue EUV" I of course mean "the US made sure the japs can't access the relevant technology because they were market leaders at the time".

Re: Canon aims to ship low-cost 'stamp' machine this year to disrupt chipmaking

#35

Post by omershapira »

ksec wrote: post #4

For those who are not aware, and I think it is important to Note, Canon is not a new entry to the industry. They were actually competing with ASML before they gave up in the early 10s. They are aiming at 5nm in 2025 and extend it to 2nm in 2027+. I guess in real world terms you can add at least 1 year to it even in the most optimistic scenario. I dont expect many logic chips will be using it, given the sunk cost invo…

> But if it works it would be very exciting for DRAM and NAND.

Japan back in control of DRAM, nature is healing

Re: Canon aims to ship low-cost 'stamp' machine this year to disrupt chipmaking

#37

Post by rjzzleep »

formerly_proven wrote: post #33
formerly_proven wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canon "exited" the race earlier than that. Canon makes KrF scanners, but chose not to pursue ArF scanners. Nikon and ASML did pursue ArF (which were introduced late 90s/early 2000s), later Nikon chose to not pursue EUV scanners, leaving only ASML in that market.

Oh and just to clarify, by "Nikon chose to not pursue EUV" I of course mean "the US made sure the japs can't access the relevant technology because they were market leaders at the time".

Do you have in references for the US involvement in Nikon's decision to drop EUV?

Re: Canon aims to ship low-cost 'stamp' machine this year to disrupt chipmaking

#40

Post by nerpderp82 »

frangolino wrote: post #6
Someone wrote: post #3

FTA: “Canon’s nanoimprint lithography — a technology under development for more than 15 years but which the company says is only now commercially viable — stamps chip designs on to silicon wafers rather than etching them using light.” It seems everything old is new again. https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/leaving-arizona : “there was a reason the 6800 was expensive. It was made using ‘contact lithography’, where t…

Contact (photo)lithography and this nanoimprint lithography are not the same thing. The 2nd is like embossing, the 1st is like stencil (like other types of photolithography, but the photomask touches the wafer).

How are the masks(molds) created for the Canon process?

https://global.canon/en/technology/nil-2023.html

Would they still have to make a standard photomask and use that to produce a mold using EUV lithography? At which point a cheaper process could be used for production. ASML would still be in that supply chain, but only for mold production.

> In addition to the technology enabling high-accuracy measurement of positional-deviation information, matching technology enabling alignment with lower-layer patterns is also important. Canon has developed a proprietary matching system that achieves alignment by using laser irradiation to thermally deform the wafer (Fig. 2). This system makes it possible to change the heat input pattern and freely deform the wafer by controlling an ultra-fine mirror group called a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD). Instead of assuming that thermal deformation of the wafer worsens alignment precision as is conventionally thought, Canon has applied an innovative new approach to the alignment (Fig. 3).

This is damn cool (hah)! They use a DMD to deposit packets of heat to different parts of the mold to warp to match the underlying layer it needs to imprint for localized nm level positioning. Bad ass.

Am I wrong?

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