Nov. 1, 2002 – Marlborough, MA – Shipley Company L.L.C., a provider of electronic materials and process innovations for advanced circuit board technology, semiconductor manufacturing, and advanced packaging, has established a partnership for low k1 lithography imaging with Silicon Valley-based Numerical Technologies Inc.

Under the terms of the collaboration, the companies will work to optimize resist performance for use with alternating aperture phase-shift masks (AAPSM) – initially using 248nm lithography equipment – for feature sizes of less than 100nm. This joint activity is designed to further develop processes for advanced SoC, memory and logic devices, and is expected to yield a more comprehensive understanding of materials optimization for this mask technology.

“To push imaging to these extremes, it is necessary to optimize the resist formulation and/or process and to take advantage of the image improvements offered by the advanced dual exposure technique developed by Numerical Technologies,” stated Gary Calabrese, Shipley VP and CTO of Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials.

“Cross-company collaborations, such as the Numerical/Shipley partnership, have become a fertile breeding-ground for the development of best-in-class process technologies,” said Numerical’s senior director, marketing, and business development, J. Tracy Weed. “As feature sizes continue to shrink and the lithography challenge continues to assert itself, such multi-disciplinary approaches are no longer optional, they’re required.”