A Two-Mirror Faceted Projection System for EUV Lithography

We propose an all-reflective two-mirror projection system for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography operating at exposure wavelengths of 13.5 nm (Mo/Si) and 11.2 nm (Ru/Be), delivering a fourfold (4\times) demagnification of the periodic mask pattern at a numerical aperture approaching unity (NA_{\max} \approx 0.993). In contrast to conventional EUV projection objectives that incorporate 6--10 aspheric mirrors with an overall optical throughput of less than 15%, the proposed design redirects each accepted discrete spatial diffraction order scattered by the mask onto the wafer via a dedicated pair of planar mirror facets. The number of reflections is strictly fixed at two for all accepted orders, retaining 50--60% of the power leaving the mask in each accepted order. We derive a spatial geometry providing rigorous optical path length equalization across all diffraction orders, thereby removing order-dependent propagation phase shifts. Individually optimized 30-bilayer Bragg multilayer coatings are designed for each facet using the transfer matrix method combined with global evolutionary optimization algorithms. The architecture is generalized to a three-dimensional vector formulation with a two-dimensionally periodic mask. Utilizing inverse lithography technology, Fourier parameterization, and a differentiable electromagnetic modal waveguide solver, we solve the synthesis problem for binary absorber masks (La absorber on a Ru/Be/Sr multilayer mirror). We demonstrate simulated aerial images of sub-10-nm features on the wafer (isolated peaks with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of approximately 5.4 nm and line pairs with a critical dimension of 6 nm) and find that the two peaks remain resolved for the tested wafer defocus values from 0 to 5 nm along the z-axis.