IN Brief:
- hTGM for ArF recovers used gas inside semiconductor fabs and returns neon to the lithography laser process.
- One system can connect to five ArF excimer lasers and achieves a 50% neon recycling rate.
- Gigaphoton specifies annual gas processing capacity of 470kL and substantial hardware commonality with its existing KrF recycling system.
Gigaphoton has developed an on-site neon recycling system for ArF excimer lasers used in semiconductor lithography. The hTGM for ArF system collects and reuses gas inside the semiconductor factory, achieving a 50% neon recycling rate while supporting as many as five ArF laser systems from one installation.
Gigaphoton specifies annual gas processing capacity of 470kL for the system. The figure describes the quantity of gas that can pass through the recycling equipment rather than a guaranteed reduction in fresh neon consumption, which will depend on laser utilisation, operating conditions, and the configuration of the fab.
The system extends an approach Gigaphoton already uses with KrF excimer lasers into the ArF lithography environment. The company says hTGM for ArF has substantial hardware commonality with its KrF recycling equipment, reducing the amount of new infrastructure required when the technology is introduced alongside an existing laser fleet.
ArF excimer lasers operate at a wavelength of 193nm and remain central to semiconductor manufacturing, including advanced processes that use repeated patterning techniques. Their laser gas mixture includes neon, making the availability and consumption of the rare gas part of the operating requirements surrounding the lithography light source.
That dependence has become more visible as neon supply has faced periods of disruption and price volatility. Production is concentrated geographically, while purification for semiconductor applications adds another layer to the supply chain. A fab running lithography equipment continuously therefore has an incentive to reduce the amount of fresh gas it needs without compromising laser output or process stability.
Recycling inside the fab changes that equation by recovering part of the used gas before additional material has to be brought onto site. The 50% recycling rate does not eliminate external neon requirements, but it can reduce the quantity of new gas needed to maintain laser operation and provides another degree of control over a consumable whose availability is external to the semiconductor plant.
The equipment has to achieve that reduction without introducing unacceptable variation into the light source. Lithography depends on stable optical performance over long production runs, so gas purity, mixture control, pressure, and the condition of the laser chamber remain part of the recycling problem. A system that recovered a high proportion of gas but impaired laser availability would shift cost from materials into lost equipment utilisation.
Gigaphoton has already tested the principle on KrF systems. Technical work presented by company engineers earlier this year describes its hTGM for KrF equipment, introduced in 2017, as capable of connecting to as many as ten KrF lasers and achieving an 85% rare-gas recycling rate. ArF therefore represents a more demanding extension of an established operating concept rather than Gigaphoton’s first attempt to return laser gas to production.
The lower 50% figure for ArF also gives the launch a useful engineering boundary. Gas recycling performance varies with the laser chemistry and process requirements, and the new system should not be treated as equivalent to the existing KrF installation simply because the underlying objective is the same. Its value will depend on the balance between recovery rate, equipment availability, maintenance requirements, and the cost of fresh neon avoided during sustained operation.
Connecting as many as five lasers to one recycling system may help the economics by spreading the supporting equipment across a group of production tools. It could also simplify maintenance compared with installing a separate recovery unit beside every laser, although the actual layout will depend on pipe runs, fab space, redundancy requirements, and the way individual lithography tools are grouped within the production line.
Gigaphoton has not disclosed customer deployments, commercial pricing, or a timetable for broad installation. The next useful measure will therefore come from production operation rather than the nominal recovery specification alone. If hTGM for ArF can maintain its recycling rate without disrupting laser availability, it gives fabs a practical route to lower their exposure to an externally sourced material used by one of the least substitutable stages in semiconductor manufacturing.
