EuroFocus

11/01/1999

PicoPolish to move to Switzerland

Wafer reclaim house Picopolish, which suffered a devastating fire earlier this year, has made arrangements to shift its manufacturing operations from Peynier in southern France to Neuchatel, Switzerland, where it will set up shop in a 1200-sq-m wafer fab facility formerly used by Ascom and Micronas. Plans called for production to resume by mid-October.

Company president Gerard Gilles cited a number of advantages to the new location, including an incentive package from the Neuchatel local government, as well as the ability to begin operations very quickly. "The plant is ready to operate," he said. "We just need to plug in the new equipment that was ordered and paid for by insurance immediately after the fire; it was ready to be delivered two months ago."

Operations at the Peynier facility had begun in 1998, with reclaim of both silicon and GaAs wafers for a number of customers from Europe and elsewhere. The fire, which occurred on the night of the May 1 Labor Day holiday, destroyed virtually every piece of equipment. Original plans had called for the company to re-establish itself on an interim basis in a nearby Atmel facility with a subsequent move to a permanent home.

Gilles added that the new facility will provide room for expansion, a high-quality cleanroom with Class 10 capabilities and ultrapure DI water with 1 ppb total organic contaminants, and central chemical distribution and controls.

A team of about 18 staff members will move to Neuchatel to handle operations and train new Swiss employees; Gilles said he expects April production capacities to be reached about two months after startup, with improved quality. Remaining in France will be R&D and new product development functions, as well as some logistical support for French customers. PicoPolish had received ISO 9002 just two days before the fire, which officials believe was an act of arson; Gilles said a reconfirmation of the ISO certification should be straightforward in the new facility.

Gilles expressed thanks to customers who have supported his firm since the incident, and said he hopes to be the European leader in silicon reclaim, and the world leader in GaAs reclaim, within two years.

IMEC's success with Dow's SiLK

IMEC, the leading European microelectronics research center that is based in Leuven, Belgium, has successfully integrated copper interconnects in a dual damascene architecture using Dow Chemical Co.'s SiLK semiconductor dielectric resin. The dual damascene technology employs the embedded hardmask approach, using silicon dioxide as the etch stop. Using the copper interconnect with PVD seeding and electrochemical deposition fill technology, the system was integrated into n-channel metal oxide semiconductor devices. No device or electrical parameter degradation occurred, indicating the compatibility of the copper and the SiLK resin. The current work at IMEC is being conducted as part of the organization's Low-K Affiliation Program, and the results are immediately available to those international partners of IMEC that are involved in the research program.

EURO BRIEFS

STEAG Electronic Systems, the Austin, TX-based subsidiary of STEAG AG (Essen, Germany), has received a multimillion dollar follow-on order for four Heatpulse 8800 RTP systems and five automated wet processing systems. The purchaser is a leading US chipmaker, and the equipment will be installed in its 200mm fab in Europe. The systems, which are expected to ship this year, will be used in volume production of devices with design rules of 0.25 micron and below.

AIXTRON AG, of Aachen in Germany, has installed a GaN HVPE reactor system at the Department of Optoelectronics at the University of Ulm, Germany. The university received the equipment as a member of a German GaN consortium funded by the German Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Technology. Engineers have been able to grow high-quality GaN on sapphire substrates, with growth rates as high as 60 microns/hour. GaN layers have been grown up to 60 microns in thickness. Two-inch-diameter GaN films with thicknesses well above 10 microns were crack-free. First PL and x-ray investigations show excellent material quality.

STMicroelectronics, the Franco-Italian semiconductor manufacturer, has awarded M+W Zander a contract to design and lead construction of an extension building for its M5 fab in Catania, Sicily. (M+W Zander, a subsidiary of Jenoptic AG, is based in Stuttgart and Nuremberg.) The design phase was scheduled for completion by the end of October, and initial construction work has already started. ST's target is to install process equipment by the third quarter of 2000. Production at the fab will continue throughout the project. M+W Zander designed and installed the cleanroom systems for the existing M5 production building in 1996, and the extension will add 50% to the area of bay-chase cleanroom. Also, M+W will construct next to the existing building a cleanroom for a pilot line that ST will be using for R&D of new process technologies.