TechCapsules

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

SEMI forecasts 300mm fab equipment spending to grow 18% to $133 billion in 2026, pushing more advanced lithography tools into production. Dr. Sabina Kuprėnaitė of OPTOMAN warns that optical components now face two distinct qualification challenges: surviving individual laser pulses and maintaining stable performance over billions of exposures. In a test, a 193 nm ion‑beam‑sputtered mirror endured roughly five billion pulses at 100 mJ/cm² with less than a 0.5 % reflectance loss. She argues that laser‑induced damage thresholds are meaningless without context, that absorption and thermal effects drive drift, and that replacement optics must replicate the original qualified response. Kuprėnaitė recommends tool makers specify cumulative pulse count, maximum absorption, allowable reflectance change, wavefront tolerances, and batch repeatability to keep optics from becoming a process‑control risk.