Company News

DuPont Electronic Technologies (Wilmington, Del.) and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co. Ltd. (TOK, Kawasaki, Japan) have signed a license and development agreement to enable production of photoresists for making future generations of semiconductor chips. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. As part of the agreement, TOK becomes the second licensee of DuPont Electronic Technologies' proprietary fluoropolymer binder resin technology.

Corning Inc. (Corning, N.Y.) has completed the previously announced expansion of its North Brookfield, Mass., manufacturing facility. The expansion adds new furnace technology and capacity, as well as finishing and metrology equipment associated with calcium fluoride development for microlithography.

Four scientists from Micronic Laser Systems AB (Täby, Sweden) were recognized by SEMI for their breakthrough contributions to laser pattern generation technology. Micronic is the first European company to receive the North American SEMI award for advancement of semiconductor manufacturing technology. Anders Thurén, Hans Buhre, Tor Sandström and Gerhard Westerberg (deceased) were honored with the awards. The team began its work in 1971 and developed the first commercial laser writer sold to the IC photomask industry in 1976.

Photronics Inc. (Jupiter, Fla.) plans to establish a series of new Advanced Technology Data Centers (ATDCs). The first ATDC will be in Fremont, Calif., in the site currently occupied by Photronics' design-to-wafer services division. Developed to address increasing complexities of data management, the ATDC will centralize, standardize and automate the front-end reticle data preparation process for multiple sites within Photronics' manufacturing network.

ASML (Veldhoven, Netherlands) has shipped the first production unit of its dual wafer stage TWINSCAN 300 mm lithography system to TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan). TSMC will install the TWINSCAN AT:750 system at its 300 mm Fab 12.

Brooks Automation Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.) has completed the acquisition of Tec-Sem AG (Tägerwilen, Switzerland), which manufactures bare reticle stockers, tool buffers and batch transfer systems for the semiconductor industry. The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase of assets in exchange for a combination of cash and Brooks' Common Stock totaling ~$20M.

PRI Automation Inc. (Billerica, Mass.) announced that a top U.S. semiconductor manufacturer has selected PRI as its preferred vendor of bare-reticle storage for its 300 mm fabs, after completing a successful beta evaluation of PRI's Guardian Bare Reticle Stocker. The company also announced that a Japanese chipmaker has selected its Guardian Bare Reticle Stocker to provide contamination-free, high-density storage of reticles in its lithography bays. This is PRI's first factory automation order from a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer.

Cymer Inc. (San Diego) has reached significant milestones recently in the sale of its DUV lasers, including its 2000th DUV excimer for lithography applications, its 200th DUV excimer in Europe, and its 100th DUV excimer in Asia.

FEI Co. (Hillsboro, Ore.) introduced a focused ion beam system for repairing clear and opaque defects on masks for 193 nm lithography. It includes methods for high-resolution multiplex imaging, and detection and repair of defects as small as 0.1µm.

Berkeley Process Control Inc. (Richmond, Calif.) introduced a Windows-based integrated development system that cuts programming time by up to a third on the company's BXi series of machine controllers. The system allows multiple programmers to share the software development task, with on-line or off-line programming for faster machine characterization, diagnostics and debugging.

Tokyo Seimitsu Co. Ltd. (Tokyo) has refuted allegations by San Jose-based KLA-Tencor of patent infringement regarding automated wafer inspection technologies in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. Two months ago, KLA-Tencor announced it was suing Tokyo Seimitsu and TSK America for infringement of the 12-year-old patent "Automatic Photomask and Reticle Inspection Method and Apparatus, Including Improved Defect Detector and Alignment Sub-systems." Metrology suppliers Rudolph Technologies (Flanders, N.J.) and Therma-Wave Inc. (Fremont, Calif.) settled their patent dispute with "no financial consideration" paid by either party.

Keithley Instruments' (Cleveland) new capacitance characterization software for its Model 4200-SCS semiconductor characterization system allows users to conduct simultaneous high-frequency and quasistatic CV measurements with a single voltage sweep. The technique improves CV measurement accuracy by reducing voltage stress on the devices under test and eliminating the need to use theoretical curves and doping profile assumptions.

Entegris (Chaska, Minn.) said that a top chipmaker will convert its fab's wafer carriers to advanced carriers made from polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and carbon fiber. PEEK carriers are designed to decrease yield loss and increase fab productivity through better dimensional stability, resistance to abrasion and high temperature capability. The order is valued at $2M.

Extraction Systems Inc. (Franklin, Mass.) announced the sale of multiple Extraction 3000 filter systems for leading 300 mm semiconductor fabs in the United States, Taiwan and Europe. The Extraction 3000, a next-generation hybrid chemical filter, is designed to protect the resists and optics in advanced (DUV) lithography systems.