Noel Technologies, a Silicon Valley technology foundry offering process development and substrate fabrication, recently expanded its capabilities to include advanced lithography services. To push their technology roadmap to 0.15 micron, they have hired former director of application development at ASML, Keith Best, as director of photolithography.

The foundry will offer a host of capabilities in lithography for device manufacturers and researchers including engineering support for reticle layout and process development for DUV 248nm (0.15 micron), i-line (0.35 micron) and contact printing.

Noel Technologies said they also plan to offer R&D in lithography, lithography pilot production runs, litho cell backup, and resist spin coatings.

Best comes to Noel from Simax Lithography, an engineering services company that optimized lithography equipment, where he was vice president, applications. Prior to Simax, he spent 11 years at ASML, most recently as director of application development, and also worked for LSI Logic and KLA-Tencor. With both a fab and tool background, Best will be charged with supporting and expanding Noel’s existing lithography engineering services and setting a roadmap to take lithography resolution down to 0.15 microns.

"With last fall’s demise of SVTC," said Noel Technologies Founder and CTO Leon Pearce, "we realized the valley needed contract lithography services. By adding advanced lithography to our mix, it’s a declaration to our customers that we are a full service facility, able to supply everything from R&D to pilot and capacity runs."

Noel Technologies, Inc. is a Silicon Valley based foundry focused on process development, optimization, quality and delivery. An ISO 9001 registered facility, Noel Technologies offers process development and fabrication up to 300mm.