Solid State Technology articles from February 2006

Solid State Technology archives from February 2006

Imaging of lines and contact holes using ArF immersion at 0.85NA.(Solid State Technology ONLINE Web Exclusives)
February 1, 2006... Vincent Wiaux, Eric Hendrickx, Geert Vandenberghe, IMEC 193nm immersion lithography has become the industry's prime choice for printing critical layers in 45nm node processes. In a research facility, through-pitch imaging solutions for 65nm...

The six billion dollar gap.(EDITORIAL)
February 1, 2006... Economists have been delivering dire warnings lately that the semiconductor industry will soon no longer be able to continue making IC devices smaller, faster, and cheaper at the same pace it has maintained over the past 40 years. The problem,...

Chipmaking tool sales bouncing back, says SEMI.(BUSINESS TRENDS)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Following a stellar 67% climb in 2004, sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment are seen declining 11% in 2005, but will bounce back to modest single-digit growth in 2006 and return to double-digit growth through 2008, according to data...

Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. are launching a JV to make and sell NAND flash memory chips, primarily to Apple Computer.(USA)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Intel Corp. and Micron Technology Inc. are launching a JV to make and sell NAND flash memory chips, primarily to Apple Computer. Each company will supply IM Flash Technologies with an initial $1.2 billion and another $1.4 billion over the next...

MKS Instruments, a Wilmington, MA, provider of monitoring and control technologies for semiconductor and other manufacturing processes, has agreed to purchase Berkeley, CA-based Ion Systems, a provider of electrostatic management solutions, for -$70 million.(USA)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... MKS Instruments, a Wilmington, MA, provider of monitoring and control technologies for semiconductor and other manufacturing processes, has agreed to purchase Berkeley, CA-based Ion Systems, a provider of electrostatic management solutions, for...

Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, and Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, are in talks to jointly develop advanced reticle technologies supporting fabrication of 45nm-and-below logic ICs.(USA)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Photronics Inc., Brookfield, CT, and Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, are in talks to jointly develop advanced reticle technologies supporting fabrication of 45nm-and-below logic ICs. Work pursuing new equipment, materials, module...

Public-private partnership SemIndia and Indian state government have announced plans to spend roughly $3 billion to build the first semiconductor manufacturing plant in India, licensing technology from AMD.(ASIAFOCUS)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Public-private partnership SemIndia and Indian state government have announced plans to spend roughly $3 billion to build the first semiconductor manufacturing plant in India, licensing technology from AMD. The site, to include wafer...

Thailand's Board of Investment has revised its incentives for wafer fabrication and IC manufacturing businesses.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Thailand's Board of Investment has revised its incentives for wafer fabrication and IC manufacturing businesses. The changes include exemption of import duties on upgraded or replacement equipment, and exemption of corporate income tax for up...

Nanoident AG.(EUROFOCUS)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Nanoident AG is planning a "two-digit million euro" investment to build a factory specifically for producing organic semiconductor sensors. Located in Linz, Austria, and online by 2006, the lab will have 100,000 sq. m production capacity.

Siltronic AG.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Siltronic AG will invest ~136 million euros (US$160.6 million) to expand 300mm wafer production at sites in Burghausen, Bavaria, and Freiberg, Saxony, by roughly 50% to a combined 335,000 wafers/month.

Entegris Inc.(closes manufacturing facility )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Entegris Inc. said it will close a manufacturing facility in Bad Rappenau, Germany, redistributing work to other sites in the US and Asia. The move will eliminate 100 positions and cost $6.5 million in expenses and asset write-offs, but will...

Chipmakers lean towards extending immersion lithography to 32nm.
February 1, 2006... Seven of the nine major chipmakers interviewed by SST partner Nikkei Microdevices say immersion lithography currently looks like their most likely technology for 32nm production in 2009-2010. Only Intel and Matsushita Electric Industrial say...

Research update from IEDM.(International Electron Device Meeting)
February 1, 2006... At the December 2005 IEEE International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM), approximately 250 technical papers were presented to more than 1730 attendees, a record crowd for the Washington, DC conference location. The papers selected for the...

Progress toward metal gates, high-k.(technology information)
February 1, 2006... Several approaches to metal gate processing and integration with high-k dielectrics for the 45nm node and beyond were reported at the 2005 IEDM. Most presentations focused on nickel silicide as the metal with one- or two-step processes to...

New interconnect topology for SoCs.(product development)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... STMicroelectronics has developed a new on-chip interconnect technology for system-on-chip designs, taking a page from its network-on-chip efforts. The company aims to improve the interconnection between IP blocks in the device, typically...

Low-power phase-change memory cells.(memory cells)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... Hitachi Ltd. and Renesas Technology Corp. say they have successfully prototyped low-power phase-change memory cells that consume about 50% less power per cell than the companies' previous technology, while generally matching other current...

Fabricating buried tunnel junctions for InP-based VCSELs.(semiconductor device)(vertical cavity surface emitting lasers)
February 1, 2006... Long-wavelength ([lambda] [greater than or equal to] 1.3[micro]m) vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSEL) are highly attractive light sources for applications in optical communication and sensing. Unlike their short-wavelength...

Integrating MEMS devices using low-temperature wafer bonding.(Microelectromechanical systems)
February 1, 2006... Long-term limitations of wafer bonding methods include surface roughness and substrate bow/warp considerations. For MEMS products, the patterned surfaces decrease the likelihood that these requirements can be maintained, but several polymers...

Accuracy, speed, new physical phenomena: the future of litho simulation.(usage of Lithography)
February 1, 2006... Optical lithography modeling began in the early 1970s and represented the first serious attempt to describe lithography not as an art, but as a science [1-3]. Thirty years later, optical lithography continues to make dramatic advances that...

Trends and challenges in MOSFET scaling.(semiconductor devices)
February 1, 2006... OVERVIEW As in previous editions, the 2005 edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITR5) [1] projects rapid scaling of the physical dimensions for leading-edge MOSFET transistors, with values of the physical...

Ask the expert.(Light emitting diodes manufacturing )
February 1, 2006... Q Our LED manufacturing facility is experiencing a variety of problems with our N[H.sub.3] flow rates and purity while seeing increasing costs. What are your recommendations? A As ammonia (N[H.sub.3]) use levels increased in LED...

Frontend processes required for continued CMOS scaling.(complementary metal oxide semiconductors)
February 1, 2006... OVERVIEW During the next several years, frontend processes will require the introduction of a variety of high-k materials and highly-engineered metal films for applications as diverse as MOSFET gate stacks, DRAM storage capacitors, and...

Many options expected in the future of lithography.
February 1, 2006... OVERVIEW The 2005 ITRS details the qualitative challenges associated with--and the quantitative requirements for--lithography using the incumbent projection imaging at 193nm wavelength with immersion lenses. The possible future...

MOPA-based light source offers high repetition rate.(PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2006... The XLA 400 fifth generation MOPA-based light source offers chipmakers a high repetition rate at 6kHz and 90W of output power, to drive the volume production of semiconductor devices at the 65nm node and enable design flexibility for hyper NA...

3-D software suite streamlines process documentation.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The SEMulator3D software suite connects semiconductor processing to design especially in training and documentation. The suite allows companies to quickly generate 2D cross sections from 3D models used in semiconductor process documentation,...

Ultraviolet thermal processing platform.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The SOLA ultraviolet thermal processing platform blends industry-standard lamp-based UV light sources with the company's multistation sequential processing architecture. With transistor and interconnect fabrication applications that require...

Vacuum platform for process and metrology equipment.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... Marathon 2 is a vacuum platform for process and metrology equipment. It features a high performance, configurable design with CenterSmart technology to enable precise, repeatable wafer placement in vacuum with realtime automatic trajectory...

Advanced product suite for 45nm and 32nm manufacturing.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... A new suite of test products from SEMATECH is designed for calibrating tools and testing wafer products that will serve the 45nm and 32nm microchip generations. The SPIDER-300 300mm test wafer for the [greater than or equal to] 65nm node...

Large-format beam switching module for UV laser processing.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... A new large-format, laser-beam switching module enables the user to quickly and accurately switch the entire beam from one path to another, e.g., between two different experiments or between two separate processes. The switching module features...

Microspot wafer analyzer system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The Semyos wafer analyzer has been designed for on-product thin film metrology in inline process control applications for both the semiconductor and data storage industries. With its <23 [micro] m FWHM microspot, it is able to measure in the...

Materials metrology system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... Built on the capabilities of this company's RVX 1000 system, the VeraFlex materials metrology system is a flexible, nondestructive system used to monitor, measure, and control critical materials processes at the 65nm and 45nm modes from...

Vertical thermal processing system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The TELINDY 300mm vertical thermal processing system integrates the benefits of the company's TELFORMULA sequential processing of varied film stacks and the productivity of its Alpha 303i. The system demonstrates high productivity through the...

IR spectrometer.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The InterceptIR spectrometer provides research-grade performance, speed, and sensitivity for trace gas analysis and monitors the air separation unit for hydrocarbon buildup. The Intercept IR spectrometer is based on this company's Nicolet...

Microscope with integrated heating system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The MS-E1S microscope integrates a compound optical microscope with an infrared gold image furnace hot stage and a video recording and display system for the direct observation of the melting and recrystallization behavior of materials. Samples...

XY nanopositioning stage.(PRODUCT NEWS)
February 1, 2006... The new P-542 xy nanopositioning stage was designed for biotechnology and nanotechnology applications. Its frictionless flexure-guided design provides a travel range of 200x200gm. High-performance piezodrives allow fast multiaxis motion with...

Automated DUV defect review station.(LITERATURE showcase)
February 1, 2006... Olympus' FR3200 200 300mm automated defect review and classification station provides visible and DUV images with resolution to 80nm New Extended Focus Imaging software provides greater depth of focus at high magnifications. Images car De...

MSP Turbo-Vaporizer.(LITERATURE showcase)
February 1, 2006... The Model 2800 Turbo-Vaporizer[TM] from MSP Corporation uses fine droplet atomization to increase droplet surface area by six orders of magnitude for efficient droplet vaporization, and avoid direct liquid-to-hot metal surface contact that can...

On entering a new era of product-driven technology.(technology management)
February 1, 2006... The international community expects a continuation of IC dimension scaling beyond the 22nm technology generation, with a technology node cycle of two to three years. Together with its industrial partners, IMEC will continue to develop process...