Japan Semiconductor Innovation 50 (T-7 1980s)
Development and Commercialization of Steppers (Nikon and Canon)
Nikon in 1981 and Canon in 1984, respectively, developed
steppers with very high performance which surpassed the preceding GCA machine.
It was particularly important that they succeeded in enlarging the exposure
area from conventional 10mm square to 15mm square by their large aperture
lens technologies, making an important step to ULSI age.
The wave lengths of light sources evolved from g-line to i-line, KrF, and
ArF along with the evolution of LSIs to finer dimensions. Both companies
had very strong development capabilities in new type lens, auto-focus, stage
control and other important technology areas, and they secured very high
market share of 70 ~ 80% until around 2,000.
The first commercialized setepper Nikon NSR-1010G |
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| Quote from Nikon HP |