Measurement Technology

High, medium or pulsed irradiation intensities in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) need to be made available for many applications in electronics and microsystem technology. The spectral range around 13.5 nm is particularly important since structures relevant to chips for the semiconductor industry can be generated or analyzed with this appropriate laser radiation.

Fraunhofer ILT is developing highly efficient EUV beam sources for high-resolution spectroscopy and nanoscale interference lithography at wavelengths in the range of 5 nm to 50 nm. This technology can be used to characterize optics, conduct contamination studies or develop new photoresists. In addition, EUV laser radiation can be used to characterize ultra-thin membranes with thicknesses of about 20 nm, multilayer systems with single-layer thicknesses of less than 1 nm and periodic lattice structures with respect to their geometry down into the subnanometer range. Membrane samples and multilayer systems can also be analyzed with stoichiometry.

Modern electronic devices contain a large number of different materials, only some of which are recovered at the end of their service life by current recycling processes. However, other valuable technology raw materials can be recovered in a circular economy if they are separated into fractions with high concentrations of the target materials.

The consortium of the EU project ADIR has developed an automated demonstration line for the targeted removal of electronic components from end-of-life electronics. A key point here is to provide information on where which components are assembled and which materials they contain.

The materials of unknown components are identified using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS); the components are evaluated – supported by image processing software – to identify which target fractions are present. This system creates a digital twin of all processed PCBs, which can be used in the subsequent process step to selectively remove and sort valuable components by laser de-soldering. The process has already been successfully tested in field trials at a recycling plant. Specialized metallurgical plants have recovered valuable materials, such as tantalum as a secondary raw material, from the enriched sorting fractions.

When information about the structure and material composition of end-of-life devices is lacking, recycling raw materials at high-quality faces a great obstacle. This is where digitally networked optical measurement technology can close the gap and enable society to efficiently recycle and save resources.