Company News
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 3/1/2002
IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) announced that it is extending its industrial affiliation program for 193 nm lithography to push the technology beyond the 100 nm node. The research company is using ASML's PAS5500/1100 high-NA (0.75 max.) 193 nm step-and-scan system, interfaced to a TEL Clean Track ACT8 advanced resist coat/development track. The program aims to push k1 factors to 0.35-0.3 for critical layers.
JMAR Technologies Inc. (Carlsbad, Calif.) announced that its JMAR Research Inc. division (JRI, San Diego) has been awarded a contract valued at up to $34.5M from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to further develop its X-ray lithography system. The company expects that, once its XRL equipment is qualified for production of military ICs, GaAs chip manufacturers will begin to install the systems for commercial production.
ASML MaskTools Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has licensed its scattering bar technology to Numerical Technologies Inc. (San Jose), which will incorporate the technology into its phase-shifting software. Numerical is the first external licensing partner to offer the scattering bar production license.
DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI, Round Rock, Texas) announced plans to upgrade the capability of DuPont Photomasks Co. Ltd., Shanghai, its joint-venture manufacturing facility in China. DPI will become the first merchant photomask producer in China to install an advanced manufacturing line capable of producing photomasks supporting 0.18 µm lithography. Improvements are scheduled to begin this quarter.In separate news, DPI announced that all of its U.S. production facilities have been awarded QS-9000 certification for quality and ISO 14001 certification for environmental standards.
Single Crystal Technologies LLC (SCT, Gilbert, Ariz.) has been awarded another U.S. patent (#6,334,899), extending its intellectual property in CaF2 purification and plate crystal growth. SCT filed the patent in June 1995.
Canon Inc. (Tokyo) and Nikon Inc. (Tokyo) led the lithography sector in 2001, according to a recent report from The Information Network (New Tripoli, Pa.). Canon led in terms of revenue, with 42% of the $5.5B market. Nikon led in terms of the number of lithography tools sold, also with a 42% share.
ASML (Veldhoven, Netherlands) and its lens partner Carl Zeiss SMT AG (Oberkochen, Germany) confirmed sufficient availability of 193 nm imaging systems in 2002 to satisfy increased market demands.
Atmel Corp. (San Jose) has adopted San Jose-based KLA-Tencor's Klarity ACE root-cause yield analysis software across all its fabs. This software was successfully implemented at Atmel's Colorado Springs, Colo., facility, where it reduced yield learning cycles from months to weeks.
PRI Automation Inc. (Billerica, Mass.) introduced its second advanced process control application, WaferState APC for Litho CD. The software provides automated adjustment of process tool input parameters, allowing Cpk, yield and throughput improvements. PRI's first APC product, WaferState APC for Litho Overlay, was introduced last December.
PDF Solutions Inc. (San Jose) reported record 4Q 2001 revenue results ($10.4M) and 15 consecutive quarters of revenue growth.
Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (Willow Grove, Pa.) has announced a series of organizational and operational changes intended to reduce costs and enhance efficiencies. Among the changes, the company has implemented a functional organizational structure to replace its previous product-focused organization. Excluded from this model, however, are the flip-chip and substrate divisions. As a result of these changes and the redundancies created, K&S expects to eliminate about 200 positions throughout all levels. Also included in the announcement, K&S plans to shift some manufacturing to a facility near Shanghai, China; and to shift machine integration for microelectronics to Singapore.
Shellcase Ltd. (Jerusalem), which supplies wafer-level packaging, has received a strategic investment of $1M from Sanyo Semiconductor Corp. (Tokyo). This investment is a second closing of the Series B funding, in which $20M was raised in April 2001.
Yield Dynamics Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) released a new reliability module that can be integrated with the company’s Genesis enterprise yield management software solution. The reliability tool helps reduce time-to-market by incorporating the latest advances in reliability theory to enable accurate assessment of product and tool reliability. The software also facilitates accelerated testing and qualification testing.
August Technology Corp. (Bloomington, Minn.) has accepted an invitation to join microelectronics companies as a member of the Die Products Consortium (DPC), which was established to advance the adoption of die products such as flip chips and wafer-level packaged devices. The consortium was founded in 1998 by National Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, Lucent, Rockwell and IBM.
