March 19, 2008 — Surface Technology Systems plc (STS), which deals with plasma process technologies required in the manufacturing and packaging of MEMS and advanced electronic devices, has sold a Pegasus Deep Reactive Ion Etch (DRIE) tool to the Institut für Halbleiter- und Mikrosystemtechnik (IHM, or Semiconductor & Microsystems Technology Laboratory), part of the Technische Universität Dresden.

The IHM’s research involves a wide range of semiconductor and microsystems applications, such as chip copper wiring, investigation of high-k materials (in cooperation with Namlab and Qimonda, fabrication of microfluidic systems and sensors, and bumping technologies for chip connection. They will be using STS’s DRIE technology in the development of advanced packaging solutions, in particular, investigating the use of through-wafer vias for 3D-IC interconnects.