Quantum Simulations for Extreme Ultraviolet Photolithography

Abstract:A key challenge of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography in semiconductor fabrication is the line edge roughness or "blur" produced by the electron cascades following absorption of a high-energy photon. Here we present quantum algorithms to compute EUV absorption and photoelectron emission spectra, which are key to predicting blur. The first is a time-domain algorithm resolving absorption at a given frequency; the second is a first-quantized plane-wave algorithm computing the photoemission spectrum via real-time dynamics that treats bound and continuum states on equal footing. For a model photoresist monomer IMePh, 92 eV absorption requires $200$ logical qubits and $10^{9}$ non-Clifford gates per circuit with $10^3$ shots, while the photoemission spectrum needs $\geq 10^{14}$ gates, $10^4$ shots, and several thousand logical qubits. These results establish high-fidelity quantum simulations as a key component to parameterize the multi-scale macroscopic models required to overcome the electron blur bottleneck in semiconductor miniaturization.

arXiv:2602.20234 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2602.20234v2 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.20234 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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