Current State and Prospects for the Development of X-Ray Lithography

— The paper presents a brief overview of the critical technologies required to create a modern lithography facility with an operating wavelength in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) range. The principles of construction, current state, main problems, and prospects for the development of projection lithography at a wavelength of 13.5 nm are described. The principles of maskless X-ray lithography (MXRL) and the project of MXRL (demonstrator of technologies) developed by the authors are reported. MXRL solves the key problem of projection lithography, which consists in a strong dependence of the cost of the lithographic process on production volumes. On the basis of the MXLR demonstrator of technologies developed by the authors, analysis of the area of critical technologies and world-class experimental groundwork currently existing in Russia in the field of EUV radiation sources, the creation and metrology of high-precision aspherical substrates and multilayer X-ray mirrors, thin films for the suppression of long-wavelength radiation and the protection of optical elements from contamination by products of erosion of the tin-plasma source of EUV radiation, and decomposition of the photoresist under the influence of powerful EUV radiation are carried out. An experimental EUV lithograph created for the first time in Russia and an experimental model of a micro-electro-mechanical system of micromirrors reflecting EUV radiation and having no world analogues is reported.