Jan. 23, 2007 — Surface Technology Systems (STS), announced that they won an EU tender for an MPX Pegasus system from the Fraunhofer-Institut für Zuverlässigkeit und Mikrointegration IZM.

Fraunhofer IZM is a leading institute in the fields of system integration technologies, materials and reliability, wafer level integration and system design and sustainable development, and has close ties to many large European semiconductor manufacturers. This STS Pegasus system will be utilized for industrial research and development into advanced packaging.

Commenting on the purchase of the Pegasus system, Robert Wieland of Fraunhofer IZM in Munich said: “We have selected the STS’ Pegasus system because of the unique plasma source design and the ease of use of the system itself. Pegasus has demonstrated that it not only offers etch rates higher than competing systems but also higher mask selectivity and superior profile control.”

John Saunders, CEO of STS added: “We are delighted to place a tool with such an influential knowledge centre, such as Fraunhofer IZM. Processing solutions developed on 200mm wafers for advanced packaging applications are likely to require easy transfer to 300mm wafers commonly used in mainstream IC packaging, so our new 300mm deep DRIE source, the development of which we announced in September 2006, is a key advantage as we establish ourselves as a key production equipment supplier to this industry sector.”