San Diego, California–Nov. 14, 2000–JMAR Technologies, Inc. recently reported that a series of technological advances in its Picosecond X-ray Light Source (PXS) program now qualify the company’s semiconductor lithography product as the enabling technology for a faster, most cost-effective alternative to the direct-write, electron beam sources currently used to produce advanced, sub 0.13-micron gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor ICs used in the highest bandwidth communications network links.

JMAR reports that the advance, achieved by its laser plasma x-ray source development team, was the production of a reliable laboratory prototype “soft” x-ray point-source system capable of generating 18W of 1-nm wavelength x-rays on demand. The company believes that x-ray sources with these performance characteristics will enable cost-effective, high-volume production of the high-frequency GaAs semiconductors needed to support the push to higher bandwidth by the rapidly expanding wireless and optical telecom industries for next-generation voice and data communications.