April 28, 2011 — ASM International N.V. (NASDAQ: ASMI and Euronext Amsterdam: ASM) received multiple system orders for its plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) reactor from a leading memory customer in Asia. Second, the company qualified a new PEALD oxide application with a memory manufacturer for the 2X nm node.
“Our innovative PEALD technology is seeing strong market validation with high-volume business from multiple top tier memory customers,” said Tominori Yoshida, general manager of ASM’s Plasma Products business unit. “Our increasing range of production-ready PEALD applications position us to support memory manufacturers now and as they move towards the challenging 1X nm node.”
The PEALD systems were ordered by a leading memory customer for high-volume manufacturing and will be installed in multiple facilities in Asia. The reactors will be used to deposit dielectrics for advanced lithography double patterning applications at the 3X nm technology node and below. This order represents the second major manufacturer to adopt ASM’s PEALD system for use in double patterning in high volume manufacturing.
ASM also qualified a new oxide application for an advanced PEALD SiO layer that targets manufacturing at the 2X nm node and below. The new application is expected to enter volume production later this year with a different Asia-based manufacturer.
ASM’s PEALD reactors are optimized to deposit dielectrics including SiO, SiN and SiCN. The process delivers conformal thin films at low temperatures, for double patterning lithography technologies where thin dielectrics are deposited over temperature-sensitive photoresists for critical dimension control and pitch reduction.
Each of the systems ordered includes multiple PEALD reactors implemented on ASM’s XP platform. The XP is a production-proven standard platform that can be configured with plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), thermal ALD or PEALD reactors.
Also see: Below 22nm, spacers get unconventional: Interview with ASM
ASM International N.V. and its subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices, wafer processing (Front-end segment) as well as assembly and packaging (Back-end segment). ASM International’s common stock trades on NASDAQ (symbol ASMI) and the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASMI’s website at www.asm.com
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