by Lisa Nadile

VILLACH, Austria—Semiconductor300, the joint venture between Infineon and Motorola, has purchased two spin processors from the SEZ Group as part of its evaluation of Windows NT. The tools manufacturer says Semiconductor300 GmbH & Co. KG made the purchase of the spin-processors, which are used for cleaning and etch application evaluations, as part of its effort to meet the strict European environmental expectations.

“They saw using the Spin-processor 304 as a way to reduce water consumption,” said Mike West, vice president of new business for SEZ America Inc in Phoenix, AZ. The spin processors will help them reduce exhaust, chemical use, and the overall square footage required in the fab, West says.

The SEZ 304 Spin-processor is a single-task multi-chemistry wet processing system with automatic FOUP-to-FOUP handling.

The implementation of the SEZ’s products occurred in the middle of the tool manufacturer’s development cycle for spin-processor. According to West, the companies teamed to ensure the new product, the Spin-processor 304, met Semiconductor300’s needs for Window NT platform-based 300-mm manufacturing.

“They started with the Spin-processor 303 and helped beta-test the new product, the 304,” West says.

The two companies improved the 304’s functionality by running performance measurements of product uniformity and defect density, and electrical data. As part of a continuing development effort, SEZ and Semiconductor 300 will use the data to develop processes for making tool parameter adjustments like HF-spiking and bath lifetime. The goal is to guarantee a reliable and stable process with the lowest cost of ownership.

In addition to helping SEZ improve the performance of the model 304, Semiconductor300 is using this opportunity to evaluate Windows NT as an operating system for its automated 300-mm fab. “In the end, the most difficult issues involved the integration [of the operating system],” West says.