TSMC's Burn Lin

摘要

Burn Lin has been extending the limits of optical lithography for more than 30 years. The list of articles he has written—many of them the first of their kind on certain topics-reads like a what's what of advanced litho technology: deep-UV, multilayer photoresist systems, depth-of-field (DOF) and resolution scaling equations, k1 reduction, optimum numerical aperture (NA) in projection printing, and many more. But in his role as senior director in TSMC's micropatterning technology division over the past couple of years, Lin has been focused on 193-nm immersion, becoming one of its most fervent champions. What was once a lithographic curiosity has become the optical extension method of choice, due in no small part to Lin's scientific and diplomatic skills. Before joining TSMC, Lin held various technical and managerial positions in the microlithography field at IBM. An SPIE and IEEE fellow, Lin has received numerous honors over the course of his career, including SPIE's first Fritz Zernike Award for Microlithography in 2004, TSMC's outstanding innovation award (also in 2004), and Taiwan's outstanding engineer award in 2002. He is editor in chief of the Journal of Microlithography, Microfabrication and Microsystems. He has also been president of his own company, Linnovation, since 1992.