Solid State Technology articles from August 2003

Solid State Technology archives from August 2003

Does the Roadmap need more shortcuts to the future?(Editorial)
August 1, 2003... The Roadmap process has helped the semiconductor industry keep its entire manufacturing infrastructure moving forward at a rapid but synchronized pace, somewhat like rolling up a huge carpet without creating kinks and bulges. The industry needs...

Capital spending to increase 15% this year.(Business Trends)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Modest sequential growth, weighted toward the end of the year, will provide an overall 15% increase in capital spending this year, according to market research firm IC Insights. The company forecasts that 2003 growth rates for the IC...

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International.(Worldwide Highlights)(North American-based semiconductor equipment makers post $751 million worth of orders)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $751 million in orders in May 2003 (three-month average basis) and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.89, according to the May 2003 Express Report published by Semiconductor Equipment...

PDF Solutions has agreed to acquire IDS Software Systems for $50.6 million.(USA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... PDF Solutions has agreed to acquire IDS Software Systems for $50.6 million. The deal will bolster PDF's software offerings for semiconductor plants with IDS' DataPower system, a database for semiconductor fabs that tracks progress and flags...

Vitesse Semiconductor will acquire Multilink Technology, Somerset, NJ, for approximately $22.9 million.(USA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Vitesse Semiconductor will acquire Multilink Technology, Somerset, NJ, for approximately $22.9 million. Multilink is expected to lay-off about two-thirds of its work force as part of the transaction. Vitesse has plans to bend Multilink's IP...

Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Lehigh Valley, PA, and Nanotechnologies Inc., Austin, TX, have signed a joint development agreement.(USA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Lehigh Valley, PA, and Nanotechnologies Inc., Austin, TX, have signed a joint development agreement. Air Products has also agreed to an equity investment in Nanotechnologies to further development efforts in its...

ASML MaskTools, Santa Clara, CA, has signed a deal to license its software for use in Nanya Technology Corp.'s semiconductor production facilities.(USA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... ASML MaskTools, Santa Clara, CA, has signed a deal to license its software for use in Nanya Technology Corp.'s semiconductor production facilities. Nanya will use ASML's MaskRigger and Scattering Bar technology on its photomasks to improve...

Mykrolis, Billerica, MA, and Nor-Cal, San Diego, CA, have agreed to distribute each other's chamber critical measurement and control technologies.(USA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Mykrolis, Billerica, MA, and Nor-Cal, San Diego, CA, have agreed to distribute each other's chamber critical measurement and control technologies. The companies will combine Mykrolis' XacTorr capacitance diaphragm gauge and Nor-Cal's Intellisys...

Veeco has purchased the atomic force microscope (AFM) probe business of NanoDevices Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.(USA)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Veeco has purchased the atomic force microscope (AFM) probe business of NanoDevices Inc., Santa Barbara, CA. The addition bolsters Veeco's existing AFM technologies.

TSMC.(China)(to invest in new wafer fab)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... TSMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan, plans to invest $898 million in a new 8-in. wafer fab plant in Shanghai, China. The plant, to be built in the Songjiang district, will start at a small-scale production of 40,000 wafers/month

Fujifilm Microdevices Co. has agreed to buy an 8-in. silicon wafer production line from Tohoku Semiconductor Corp., a Motorola subsidiary in Sendai, Japan.(Japan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Fujifilm Microdevices Co. has agreed to buy an 8-in. silicon wafer, production line from Tohoku Semiconductor Corp., a Motorola subsidiary in Sendai, Japan. Fujifilm Micro will use the line to help it boost output of charge-coupled devices used...

Sony Corp., Tokyo, announced plans to spend $4.27 billion ([yen] 500 billion) over the next three years on semiconductor capital investments and R&D.(Japan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Sony Corp., Tokyo, announced plans to spend $4.27 billion ([yen] 500 billion) over the next three years on semiconductor capital investments and R&D. The funding will focus on processors based on CELL technology jointly developed with IBM Corp....

Hynix Semiconductor has signed a contract to supply production support for On Semiconductor's power management products.(Korea)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Hynix Semiconductor has signed a contract to supply production support for On Semiconductor's power management products. The contract will last through 2005 with options to renew.

Hynix Semiconductor Inc.(Korea)(South Korean government to take US Department of Commerce tariff decision to World Trade Organization)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The South Korean government said it will take the US Department of Commerce (US DOC) decision to impose nearly 45% tariffs on imports from Hynix Semiconductor Inc. to the World Trade Organization. The case will now move to the International...

GPD Global has formed an alliance with Partech Corp., a distributor in Korea.(Korea)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... GPD Global has formed an alliance with Partech Corp., a distributor in Korea. Partech will provide support to customers in the electronics assembly and high-density interconnect industries.

Feinfocus, a manufacturer of high-resolution x-ray inspection equipment based in Stamford, CT, has formed a partnership with MySem, a division under MIMOS Berhad, an R&D institution in Malaysia.(Malaysia)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Feinfocus, a manufacturer of high-resolution x-ray inspection equipment based in Stamford, CT, has formed a partnership with MySem, a division under MIMOS Berhad, an R&D institution in Malaysia. MySem recently installed a Feinfocus 0.20 x-ray...

Formosa Advanced Technologies Co.(Taiwan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Formosa Advanced Technologies Co., Taipei, will expand its business for packaging and testing consumer ICs and memory IC modules this year. Formosa will add IC packaging and testing equipment based on 12-in. wafers this year, and establish a...

Formosa Komatsu Silicon Corp., a wafer-manufacturing joint venture between Formosa Plastics Corp., Taiwan, and Japan's Komatsu Electronic Metals Co., have announced plans to build a new 12-in. semiconductor wafer plant.(Taiwan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Formosa Komatsu Silicon Corp., a wafer-manufacturing joint venture between Formosa Plastics Corp., Taiwan, and Japan's Komatsu Electronic Metals Co., have announced plans to build a new 12-in. semiconductor wafer plant. The companies plan to...

Winbond Electronics Corp.(Taiwan)(to build new wafer plant in Taiwan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Winbond Electronics Corp. will build a new 12-in. wafer plant in central Taiwan. The plant, to be built within the next two years, will produce flash memory chips and other products, and is not for DRAM chips, the company said. Unconfirmed...

UMC, Taipei, has unveiled new strained silicon technology using wafers built on substrate technology from AmberWave Systems, Salem, NH.(Taiwan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... UMC, Taipei, has unveiled new strained silicon technology using wafers built on substrate technology from AmberWave Systems, Salem, NH. The process aims to enhance CMOS performance with more than 20% current-driving capability on a 70nm...

Winstek Semiconductor Corp. and assembly company Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE) have signed an agreement to jointly offer assembly and test services to the local Taiwanese semiconductor market.(Taiwan)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Winstek Semiconductor Corp. and assembly company Orient Semiconductor Electronics (OSE) have signed an agreement to jointly offer assembly and test services to the local Taiwanese semiconductor market. Under the agreement, Winstek will provide...

SUSS Microtec.(Eurofocus)(introduces new line of lithography technologies)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... SUSS Microtec, Munich, Germany, has introduced a new line of lithography technologies for use in wafer-level packaging, MEMS, and optoelectronics. Collectively called SupraYield, the set is designed to expose the entire wafer in one step,...

Aixtron.(Eurofocus)(receives undisclosed funding from Taiwanese government)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Aixtron, Aachen, Germany, a manufacturer of equipment for compound semiconductors, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from the Taiwanese government to set up a research and development center. The three-year project will focus on...

Veeco Instruments, Woodbury, NY, and Schott Lithotech, Jena, Germany, have signed an agreement to develop advanced photomask technologies.(Eurofocus)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Veeco Instruments, Woodbury, NY, and Schott Lithotech, Jena, Germany, have signed an agreement to develop advanced photomask technologies. Under the deal, Schott will provide materials and process technology for next-generation photomask...

ON Semiconductor, Phoenix, AZ, says that it will merge two of its units in the Czech Republic, Tesla Sezam and Terosil, by the end of the year.(Eurofocus)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... ON Semiconductor, Phoenix, AZ, says that it will merge two of its units in the Czech Republic, Tesla Sezam and Terosil, by the end of the year. Terosil, the largest producer of semiconductors in the Czech Republic, supplies a major part of its...

Royal Philips Electronics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, says that it will unveil a new mobile processor next year to compete with Intel, TI, and Motorola.(Eurofocus)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Royal Philips Electronics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, says that it will unveil a new mobile processor next year to compete with Intel, TI, and Motorola. The Nexia mobile multimedia processor will power Sony Ericsson's P800 smart phone, which...

Angstron Systems shows full-wafer (300mm) data on Cu ALD.(Technology News)
August 1, 2003... In Solid State Technology's "ALD Special Report: Where's the metal?" (Jan. 2003), industry experts debated the merits and problems associated with Cu ALD and TaN ALD. It is clear that the ALD process, while achieving highly conformal films,...

300mm wet processing tool in place for boom.(Technology News)
August 1, 2003... The marketing logic behind the recent introduction of a high-throughput single-wafer clean platform by SEZ, Villach, Austria, points to rising use of single-wafer wet surface prep at the expense of wet benches and spray (see figure), all driven...

Step-and-flash imprint lithography: can it fit the bill for NGL?
August 1, 2003... IC manufacturers don't need much practice to shake their heads in disbelief. The out-of-sight price tags of some next-generation lithography (NGL) tools have been hinted at for quite some time; some sources say NGL tools will be priced [greater...

The industry's worship of [R.sub.a] in gas system plumbing.(Front End Of Line)
August 1, 2003... In our modern world of semiconductor manufacturing, [R.sub.a] is the symbol for average roughness of a surface ([Roughness.sub.average]). Often [R.sub.a] has taken on godlike significance in the lexicon of engineers that design plumbing or...

Developing sub-90nm low-k/Cu solutions.(Interconnect)
August 1, 2003... The adoption of low-k materials into Cu damascene device structures has taken longer and required more work than anyone in the semiconductor industry had predicted. While materials with k = 2.8 are finally on the cusp of volume production,...

Simplifying multiple [V.sub.T] process flows using chained implants.(Implant)(Illustration)
August 1, 2003... Overview Below the 100nm node, it is impossible to simultaneously meet drive current and gate leakage specifications for leading-edge devices using Si[O.sub.2] or SiON gate dielectrics. This has forced the fabrication of multiple...

Correcting HDP film thickness with a wet pre-planarization etch.(Etch)
August 1, 2003... Overview Precise control of chemical mechanical planarization is becoming increasingly important, and uniformity is greatly influenced by the step and height of patterns. Optimization of dummy patterns helps to improve uniformity at the...

Topography reduction for copper damascene interconnects.(Cu/Low-k Integration)
August 1, 2003... Overview Surface topography variations (currently >4000[Angstrom]) within-die, die-to-die, and across the wafer, are major obstacles for the copper interconnect process today. Improving the planarity at the copper deposition step and...

It's time for fabs to use XPS, SIMS, and Auger.(Metrology)
August 1, 2003... OVERVIEW IC manufacturing always has been supported by metrology techniques that first prove their value in a laboratory setting and then transition to production applications. The last method to do so was atomic force microscopy, which is now...

Optimum process performance through better CMP slurry management.(Chemicals/Chemical Handling)
August 1, 2003... OVERVIEW Within wafer fabs where processing is done largely through the manipulation of ions and photons, chemical mechanical planarization and its slurry seem somewhat industrial. Yet through the meticulous class of engineering that the IC...

Etch system streamlines processes.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The Producer Etch system can be used in applications such as aluminum via, bond pad, and spacer etch across multiple device generations. The system features high-speed, dual-wafer handling, and can be configured with up to three Twin Chamber...

CD measurement system is for wafers & photomasks.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The MicroLine 400 critical dimension measurement system automatically measures linewidth, overlay, and other critical features on wafers and photomasks. Features from 0.5-400[micro]m can be measured, and measurement repeatability is 4nm...

Vertical furnace enables flexible batch sizes.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The A412 SmartBatch vertical furnace has dual boats and dual reactors, and answers the need for short cycle times and flexible batch sizes, at low cost of ownership. The system is aimed at oxidation, diffusion, LPCVD, and ALCVD applications,...

System detects wafer-edge defects.
August 1, 2003... The SmartEdge wafer-edge defect inspection system locates and classifies defects and particles on a wafer edge, including point defects, scratches, area defects, chips, cracks, etch defects, crystal growth, and epi defects. These defects are...

Wet process stations.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The series 1412 wet process stations feature a rugged and safety-oriented design and maximum chemical resistance. Stations can be made of stainless steel, white polypropylene, and fire-resistant white polypropytene. Standard sizes are available...

Software for lithographic exposure.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... Weir PW software provides a toolset for lithographic exposure and process control from any metrology source. The software uses custom models of wafer and field systematic feature distributions to calculate critical control elements needed for...

Flip chip underfill dispenser.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The dispenser generation DJ335 was designed specifically for flip chip underfill and includes a high-resolution pattern recognition system that guarantees micron-precision chip detection. Two independently programmable light sources with...

IP protection software.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The IProtect family of software products protects intellectual property (IP) from theft while providing users with transparent IP access. The first product in the family, IProtect ePack, is designed for IP vendors to protect licensed IP. Using...

Wafer calibration software.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... SussCal Version 5.1 calibration software is for wafer-level measurements. It provides the interface between the VNA and probe station, simplifying and automating the task of wafer-level calibration. The calibration process removes the effects...

Surface metrology profiler.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The Dektak 8 advanced development profiler for research and production surface metrology combines high repeatability, low-force tip technology, and advanced 3-D data analysis for accurate characterization of MEMS, semiconductors, data storage...

Wafer bumping equipment.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The PacLine 2000-A50 fully automatic, wafer-level electroless nickel/gold bumping equipment provides high throughput, with an average processing time of 20 min., which translates into 150 200mm or 75 300mm wafers/hour. The system consists...

Reticle filter.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... This advanced reticle filter is for efficient removal of gas-phase organics and other contaminants within lithography tools. The filter is smaller than point-of-use filters for lens purge and optics protection, allowing maximum contamination...

Rotation stage for wafer inspection.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The RGV100 direct-drive motorized rotation stage offers high speed, good reliability, high precision, and a low profile for semiconductor wafer inspection and related applications, including those involved in MEMS manufacture. The direct-drive...

Tool rebuilding & maintenance services.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... Specialized rebuilding, reconfiguring, and servicing of most semiconductor tools, including those no longer supported by the original OEM, can lower direct fixed costs for chipmakers. These offerings include long-term contracts for outsourcing...

VUV beam delivery system.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... This VUV beam delivery system is for excimer lasers, especially those operating in the demanding short wavelength (157-193nm) vacuum ultra violet (VUV) range. The system is flexible, modular, and designed for quick and easy reconfigurability....

Batch control software.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... SamplerSight software allows operators to manage the sampling requirements for batch-based operations and also provides a comprehensive view of batch information with histogram, time plot, and tabular data. Recipe functionality for sample...

Laser source.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The Model 1732 compact laser source is a 2.5GHz-modulated, 1310nm source for test and measurement applications. Benefits include use of high-performance microwave circuitry that ensures clean delivery of the electrical input to the laser chip...

Microsteppers for lithography research.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... These lines of 193nm and 157nm DUV microsteppers--the MS-193-X, MS-193-I, and MS-157-X--are for conducting entry-level research in advanced lithography at DUV wavelengths without incurring the high costs of using more macrofield steppers. Their...

Cross roller translation stages.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... This line of 1.75-and 2.62-in. cross roller translation stages compliments the manufacturer's ball bearing translation stages. They offer load-carrying capability claimed to be twice that of similar ball bearing translation stages. They are...

Rotary tables for 300mm wafers.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... RotoRing300 direct drive rotary tables provide angular positioning for front-and backend semiconductor-manufacturing applications. A large-diameter air-bearing system provides sufficient stiffness for high payloads. Backlash, friction, and wear...

Vibration control system.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... This portable system uses active feedback to achieve high levels of vibration isolation for a variety of high-resolution instruments, such as interferometers and photo-imaging microscopes. The 800 Series tabletop unit isolates all six possible...

Pressure transducer for DI water.(Product News)
August 1, 2003... The DI pressure transducer for deionized water measures line pressure for monitoring or controlling critical semiconductor process conditions for high-purity chemical, DI water, and slurry-polishing applications. The transducer features a...

Calendar.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
August 1, 2003... AUGUST 2003 19--Lithography Challenges for IC Manufacturing--FSI Web Seminar Series. Info: www. fsi-intl.com/forum SEPTEMBER 2003 8-10--DISKCON USA 2003--San Jose, CA. Info: ph 408/991-9430, fax 408/991-9434, info@idema.org,...

SOI and strain: CMOS performance enhancers.(The future of SOI and strained Si)
August 1, 2003... High-performance logic CMOS devices can gain from performance enhancers such as strained channel or the partially/fully depleted architecture of transistors built in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates. Both features can be incorporated into...

Strained silicon and SOI: complementary teehnologies.(The future of SOI and strained Si)
August 1, 2003... Geometric scaling has enabled continued CMOS device performance enhancement as well as an exponential increase in circuit integration density. Physical limitations such as leakage current and power density, however, make geometric scaling an...

Advanced materials: driving enhanced performance.(The future of SOI and strained Si)
August 1, 2003... Individually, strained silicon and silicon on insulator (SOI) represent important substrate engineering technologies that offer viable alternatives for semiconductor manufacturers looking for higher speed and lower power consumption. Combining...