June 20, 2002 – San Diego, CA – JMAR Technologies Inc., a developer and provider of compact point-source, laser plasma lithography systems and sources, has received a contract for $5.3 million from the US Army Robert Morris Acquisition Center in Adelphi, MD, to finance the completion of the first of its integrated proprietary point-source laser plasma lithography systems.

The program is sponsored by DARPA.

The prototype system will initially perform sub-130nm lithography demonstrations using gallium arsenide semiconductors. Those demonstrations are scheduled to commence this summer.

The fully integrated conventional footprint, all-JMAR, Model 5J lithography system consists of a 1nm wavelength laser plasma light source, developed by the company’s JMAR research division in California, combined with an advanced nanostepper designed and built by its JMAR/SAL NanoLithography division (JSAL) in Vermont.

A significant portion of the funding under this contract is allocated to supporting a series of technology advancement tasks to increase the processing throughput potential of the system for high-resolution gallium arsenide (GaAs) products over the next year and to adapt it for processing high-performance silicon semiconductor products within the next few years.

The goals of those tasks include increasing the laser source power output and developing advanced collimators to provide higher intensity, 1nm light on the semiconductor wafer targets. The contract also includes funding to procure and evaluate the performance of a series of state-of-the-art X-ray photomasks, and for characterizations and development of new, higher sensitivity, fast-acting photoresists for use in future higher-production-rate lithography applications.