Category Archives: Materials and Equipment

July 13, 2011 — SUSS MicroTec unveiled MaskTrack Pro InSync, a holistic in-fab extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) mask management product that synchronizes mask cleaning, handling, inspection, and storage. The tasks are performed in a single- or cluster-style controlled environment. MTP InSync operates in a zero particle regime to maintain mask integrity when entering the EUV lithography scanner vacuum environment.

The MaskTrack Pro InSync interfaces directly with the specific EUV Dual Pod in a fully controlled environment, allowing direct transfer of the Dual Pod from the scanner to the MaskTrack Pro reticle cleaning tool. It is designed to cluster mask cleaning, transfer and storage of the inner pod in a pristine environment, with optional particle detection and inner pod cleaning.

The first MTP InSync will go to imec in August 2011. In February, imec installed ASML’s pre-production EUVL scanner, the NXE:3100. The installation marked imec’s EUVL research program’s move to the preproduction stage, shifting the focus from mainly an infrastructure study to include now also a manufacturability study. Check out imec president and CEO Luc Van den hove’s remarks on imec’s EUVL program here.

Visit SUSS MicroTec as SEMICON West booth 1707, through July 14 in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. More new SEMICON West products and news from Moscone’s halls here.
 
For further information, go to www.suss.com

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July 13, 2011 — Packaging materials supplier Henkel worked with STMicroelectronics (STM) to qualify Henkel’s Ablestik C100 conductive die attach film materials for production of very small package configurations in a process called ScalPack, which incorporates die with extremely small dimensions into leadframe packages.  

The die placement process was developed with Henkel to increase workability in leadframe packaging (over die attach pastes), said Laura Ceriati, STMicroelectronics corporate package development director for leaded package platforms. STMicro expects to use the conductive die attach tape for medium-power applications. With the Ablestik product, one leadframe design to be used for multiple package types.  

The 15 and 30

Updated August 2, 2011 – PR Newswire — SPTS Technologies, formerly known as SPP Process Technology Systems (SPTS), a leading manufacturer of etch, deposition, and thermal processing equipment for the semiconductor and related industries today announced the completion of the transaction by SPTS management and Bridgepoint to acquire the company from Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd. (SPP). The deal closed with an enterprise value of nearly $200 million. SPP will continue to have an association with SPTS through a minority equity stake in the company, and will cooperate with SPTS to jointly serve the Japanese market.

Updated July 10, 2011 – Marketwire — Wafer processing equipment maker SPP Process Technology Systems (SPTS) received the investment backing of Bridgepoint, a European private equity firm, for a management buyout from parent company SPP.

Under the plan, SPP would maintain a minority stake in the new business entity and continue as its partner in a Japan-based joint venture. The company name will remain as SPTS.

SPTS boasts 500 employees in 19 countries. In 2010 it generated sales of $217 million and Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) of $58 million. In 2011, SPTS has acquired etch technologies from Primaxx and Tegal. Bridgepoint calls the company an "attractive opportunity" in the wafer processing equipment sector, as it targets emerging semiconductor growth areas like micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) and light emitting diodes (LEDs).

Chris Bell, a director at Bridgepoint, noted that the investment company helped SPTS identify initiatives to optimize "operational performance, including acquisitions in attractive niche markets and joint ventures." William Johnson, SPTS president and CEO, added that Bridgepoint’s investment will be applied to market growth in MEMS, compound semiconductor, advanced packaging and power electronics manufacturing equipment sectors. Johnson, along with COO, Kevin Crofton, discussed the deal with Bridgepoint in this podcast interview.

Johnson said that, although the SPP has been very pleased with the progress made by SPTS since its acquisition, the company’s champion during its acquisition, SPP’s president, Susumu Kaminaga, has announced his retirement (within the next few years), and others within SPP were concerned about the cyclicality inherent in the semiconductor business. With SPP being largely an industrial company (it was spun out of Sumitomo Metals Industry, which is in the process of merging with Nippon Steel), the movement by SPTS management to do a buy-out was a welcome overture. The buy-out was initiated by Johnson, Crofton, and Richard Rees in February 2011. Johnson noted that SPP kept a small equity position in the company and both companies intend to enter into a joint venture in Japan later this year.

According to Crofton, Bridgepoint has placed no requirements on the deal other than that the management team executes to its business plan. "Their expectations are very different from what you would see in a US-based VC firm," said Crofton. "They expect to make their return on exit — their investment horizons are typically a 5-year horizon. There isn’t even an expectation to pay any dividends or any sort of monies back to Bridgepoint during their investment period."

Johnson explained that there was no debt involved in the deal: "it is a 100% equity deal. This confirms Bridgepoint’s belief in the strength of our business and future possibilities." He also noted that SPTS will be partnering with Australian company, BluGlass (in a JV), to bring the remote plasma CVD (RPCVD) technology to market in the HB-LED industry. SPTS acquired about 20% of BluGlass last year and formed a JV with them to commercialize its RPCVD process. Johnson characterized RPCVD technology as a potentially disruptive technology for deposition of GaN for the LED and solar markets. "From Bridgepoint’s point of view, it appeared to be one of the jewels in our crown," said Johnson.

Advisers involved in this transaction include: for vendor — BDO (corporate finance), Bingham (legal); for management — Osborne Clarke (legal), Ernst & Young (corporate finance); for Bridgepoint — Ernst & Young (transaction services), Travers Smith (legal), McKinsey, Prismark and OC&C (market due diligence). The transaction is subject to standard competition clearances.

SPP Process Technology Systems (SPTS) was established in October 2009 as the vehicle for the merger of Surface Technology Systems and acquired assets of Aviza Technology. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Precision Products Co., Ltd.

SPTS designs, develops and manufactures capital equipment that is used in the production of MEMS, power management devices, advanced packaging, high speed RF components, and LEDs on compound semiconductor substrates. Learn more at www.spp-pts.com.

Bridgepoint is a European private equity firm focusing on the acquisition of companies valued up to €1 billion. See www.bridgepoint.eu.

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July 8, 2011 — Canon Inc. made its first foray into the semiconductor back-end packaging equipment market with the new FPA-5510iV for through silicon via (TSV) and bump lithography.

The Canon FPA-5510iV semiconductor lithography tool uses technologies from Canon’s FPA-5500iZ front-end tool series, with high resolution, high throughput, and high overlay accuracy to accomodate TSV and bump structures.

Resist film for TSVs and bumps is relatively thick. Canon equipped the tool with an optimized Numerical Aperture for the thickness with a pattern size of one to several tens of microns. It realizes small and deep vertical holes in the thick resist. The Numerical Aperture is adjustable to handle various patterns, controlling the image depth of focus, resolution and resist profile.

The FPA-5510iV features a large exposure area and high-intensity light exposure. The system’s projection lens optics expose 52 x 34 mm, compared with the 26 x 33 mm area exposed by front-end tools, and the illumination optics utilize a 4.5kW high-intensity lamp as the light source.

Canon makes lithography systems for LCD and semiconductor manufacturing. Learn more at http://www.canon.com/

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July 8, 2011 — SET – Smart Equipment Technology – will introduce the FC300R robotic device bonding platform at SEMICON West, July 12-14 in San Francisco, CA. The FC300R performs chip-to-substrate bonding, chip-to-wafer assembly, and chip-to-chip stacking for flip chip, through silicon via (TSV), and other advanced packaging processes.

The FC300R uses a loading robot added to the base of an FC300 bonding tool to increase component handling capabilities with substrates and waffle packs/GELPAKs, which the machine can store in large quantities. The tool accommodates components from 150 x 150

July 7, 2011 – BUSINESS WIRE — Nordson MARCH’s FlexTRAK-WF low-cost, cassette-based automated plasma treatment system handles five wafer sizes with minimal hardware change-over. An integrated robot and aligner automate wafer and other flat substrate handling at up to 50 wafers per hour. Plasma uniformity suits ashing, etching, and descum for wafer level packaging and general wafer processing applications.

Two separate wafer load stations enable production continuity and minimal idle time. The universal cassette stage and multi-size aligner can take on 3"-8" wafers. Integrated wafer recognition technology detects and adjusts for potential wafer protrusion, double-stacking, cross-slotting, and other issues.

See Nordson MARCH demonstrate the FlexTRAK-WF in booth #6071 at SEMICON West, Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA, July 12-14, 2011.

Nordson MARCH makes plasma processing technology for the semiconductor, printed circuit board (PCB), microelectronics, and medical & life science device manufacturing industries. Visit the Nordson MARCH website for more details: http://www.nordsonmarch.com.

Nordson Corporation (Nasdaq: NDSN) produces precision dispensing equipment, testing and inspection systems for electronic components, and technology-based systems for UV curing and surface treatment processes. Visit Nordson on the web at www.nordson.com

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July 6, 2011 — Avantor Performance Materials will launch the first in its new J.T.Baker SLCT Series of selective etch surface treatment chemistries, SLCT 128 sigma etchant, at SEMICON West 2011.

J.T.Baker SLCT 128 sigma etchant simultaneously cleans and selectively etches the wafer substrate in poly-gate architectures, creating a cavity for strain engineered gate structures. No pre-implant operations are required to tailor the initial etching. Highly controlled etch is paired with post-etch residue removal and pre-cleaning. The resultant clear, well-defined faceted sigma shape for epitaxy suits advanced nodes, and users may cut out an additional rinse after the process. Plasma pre-etching can be eliminated or reduced in some operations.

The self-cleaning etch chemistry can be used in front end of line (FEOL) wafer fab on strained silicon channels where silicon germanium (SiGe) and silicon nitride (SiN) induce strain on the silicon lattice under the gate region; FinFET structures where the semiconductor material is vertical rather than horizontal; and other advanced wafer processes.

The etchant was created through a joint development agreement between Avantor and SACHEM Inc., which covers specialty surface preparation and removal chemistries for thin-film wafer stacks. Avantor applied photoresist/residue removal technologies, while SACHEM engineered bulk etchants and surface prep aspects. Under the agreements, the companies established a global applications team supported by Avantor’s advanced wafer processing equipment.

Combining the companies’ core strengths in selective etch products enables better semiconductor manufacturing, said John Bubel, director of marketing, electronic materials, at Avantor, adding that the partnership smartly boosts investment in research and development. Tom Mooney, president of SACHEM Asia, added that the partnership is targeting emerging sub-22nm nodes, cutting down on process materials consumption and steps.

Avantor and SACHEM are developing other selective etch and targeted layer removal solutions with leading semiconductor manufacturers in Asia and the Americas.

Avantor plans to expand the SLCT Series with additional selective etch products in the near future, targeting selectivity to metal oxides and integration stacks common in advanced memory chip manufacturing.

To learn more about SLCT 128 sigma etchant and other selective etch products in development, visit Avantor booth 1607 at SEMICON West, July 12-14 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA.

Avantor Performance Materials (formerly Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.) manufactures and markets high-performance chemistries and materials. Avantor makes products used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, photovoltaic cells and flat panel displays (FPD). For additional information, visit www.avantormaterials.com

SACHEM Inc. delivers highly pure, precise and innovative chemical solutions designed to solve the most demanding and challenging applications. Learn more at www.sacheminc.com

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July 5, 2011 – On June 27th Elpida Memory announced that it had begun sample shipments of DDR3 SDRAM (x32-bit I/O configuration) made using through-silicon via (TSV) stacking technology. The device, according to the company, is a "low-power 8Gb DDR3 SDRAM that consists of four 2Gb DDR3 SDRAMs fitted to a single interface chip using TSV."

Target applications reportedly include tablet PCs, extremely thin PCs, and other mobile computing systems. The new TSV DRAM will reportedly enable significant energy savings as well as making portable electronic devices smaller, thinner and lighter. Elpida believes that the new devices in notebook PCs will demonstrate a 20% reduction in operating power and a 50% reduction in standby power compared with systems that use the standard SO-DIMM configuration which use standard wire bonding technology. Power consumption is reduced because the TSVs shorten the interconnect between the chips, thus reducing parasitic resistance and capacitance.

In addition, chip height is decreased and the DIMM socket is eliminated. Chip mounting area is reportedly reduced 70%.

Exactly one year ago, Elpida Memory, Powertech Technology (PTI), and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) announced a three-way 3D IC partnership to leverage the strengths of Elpida’s DRAM, PTI’s assembly, and UMC’s foundry logic technologies to develop a total 3D IC Logic + DRAM integration solution. That partnership was finalized last month.

Elpida began developing TSV technology in 2004 on a Japanese grant from NEDO (the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization). In 2009 it demonstrated the industry’s first TSV DRAM based on stacking together eight 1GB DDR3 SDRAMs.