Research programs at Japanese ASET consortium

02/01/1997

Research programs at Japanese ASET consortium

Japan`s government-funded electronics research cooperative - the Association of Super-Advanced Electronics Technologies (ASET) - has begun work on several projects at its two research centers and at member company facilities. ASET has 22 member companies, including the top ten Japanese semiconductor makers, as well as IBM Japan, Texas Instruments Japan, and Merck. The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), an affiliate of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) is providing 30 billion yen (about $280 million) in funding between now and 2000, for work in ULSI circuits, ultra high density magnetic data storage, and liquid crystal displays.

ULSI themes under investigation are:

 Direct-write electron beam lithography. Fujitsu and Advantest are cooperating on a multicolumn technique. Hitachi is studying a single-column method.

 X-ray lithography. Work will be conducted by member company engineers at ASET`s Atsugi Research Center, located at NTT`s Research Lab in Atsugi. A synchrotron ring owned by NTT will be used for the experiments.

 ArF (193 nm) optical lithography. Work will be conducted at ASET`s Yokohama Research Center, located at Hitachi`s Yokohama Plant, where SELETE also has its 300-mm evaluation facility on the same floor.

 Advanced mask fabrication. Software work is being managed by Toshiba and its Toshiba Machine affiliate, while hardware development is being overseen by JEOL.

 Plasma reaction measurement, analysis, and control. Member company engineers are cooperating in this effort at the ASET Yokohama center.

 Fine particle control and cleaning. SPC Electronics is managing particle removal, with TI`s Tsukuba R&D center evaluating cleaning processes. - P.N.D.