July 17, 2007 – DuPont Electronic Technologies has joined European chip R&D consortium IMEC as an industrial affiliate in 45nm and 32nm technology development, participating in programs on cleaning, contamination control, and advanced interconnects.
The initial two-year program will see Dupont’s EKC Technology unit send staff to IMEC to help develop new post-CMP cleaning solutions for the Cu/low-k scaling program. In addition, EKC will utilize IMEC’s technology for testing newly developed post-etch residue removers.
The deal will enable IMEC to evaluate the performance of various EKC post-CMP cleaning solutions, and “allow us to obtain generic knowledge that can explain phenomena observed during post-CMP cleaning,” said Serge Vanhaelemeersch, department director of advanced materials and process steps at IMEC.