October 6, 2005 – Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), a Chinese semiconductor foundry, and Luminescent Technologies Inc., a provider of lithography enhancement systems, have announced a joint development program to evaluate Luminescent’s inverse lithography technology (ILT) products in SMIC’s production environment for its 65nm and below process nodes.

Together, the two companies will apply ILT to cutting-edge IC designs. The collaboration commenced with the installation of Luminescent’s Explorer development platform at SMIC’s production facility in Shanghai.

Crediting SMIC for pioneering new lithography initiatives, Luminescent’s CEO, David Fried, noted, “With this agreement, SMIC is pushing the envelope of semiconductor manufacturing technology to expand its business and maintain its competitive edge. By deploying our Explorer product in SMIC’s first-class production environment, we are partnering with this leading foundry on its advanced lithography initiatives.”

ILT mathematically determines the mask features needed to produce the intended on-wafer results, and is a more rigorous and direct alternative to reticle enhancement technology (RET). It is the first reticle creation technology developed specifically for the deep sub-wavelength era. Benefits include: expanded lithography process windows; superb pattern fidelity; and reduced time-to-silicon — all without changing the existing lithography infrastructure and design-to-silicon flow.