The Annual Desk-Clearing Lithography News Roundup

In case you haven't heard, Semiconductor International moved its main executive/editorial office location last month. Although I moved my stack of SEMICON West-related lithography news with me, they're beginning to burn a hole in my new desktop. So, in the interest of keeping my new cubicle neat and spiffy, I've decided to institute an annual desk-clearing lithography news roundup. The second annual clearing may never see the light of day, but for this year at least, enjoy.

• Ultratech Stepper Inc. (San Jose) received an order for its Saturn Spectrum 300e2 from Texas Instruments (TI, Dallas). This marks TI's first 300 mm bump purchase from Ultratech. In separate news, Ultratech announced that its chairman and CEO, Arthur W. Zafiropoulo, has been elected as SEMI's chairman for 2002.
• Numerical Technologies Inc. (San Jose) has deployed its Virtual Stepper and i-Virtual Stepper simulation-based mask qualification products at foundry United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan). Through a joint-development agreement, UMC qualified Numerical's software in a production environment on multiple standard inspection platforms. In separate news, Numerical announced that Larry Hollatz has joined the company as its president and CEO. Founding CEO Y.C. (Buno) Pati will serve as chairman of the board.
• JMAR Technologies Inc. (San Diego) has initiated a contractual collaboration in its advanced semiconductor lithography program with Henry I. Smith, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, Mass.) and director of the college's NanoStructures Laboratory. Smith will work with JMAR to introduce its Collimated Plasma Lithography (CPL) system to the commercial marketplace.
• Honeywell Electronic Materials (HEM, Sunnyvale, Calif.) and JSR Corp. (Tokyo) have signed a memorandum of understanding to appoint JSR as a non-exclusive worldwide distributor for HEM's DUO inorganic bottom antireflective coatings (BARCs).
• DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI, Round Rock, Texas) has introduced its ACUITY Advanced Imaging Mask Set strategy to address the increasing complexities of subwavelength lithography. ACUITY targets devices with design rules of 130 nm and below. DPI designed a model mask set for each of three distinct market segments; chipmakers customize the model by choosing a combination of binary and phase-shift masks.
• Cymer Inc. (San Diego) has secured a volume purchase agreement valued at >$79M with a top lithography equipment supplier. The purchase agreement is for Cymer's ELS-7000 KrF light source, delivery of which will take place through 2003.
• International SEMATECH (ISMT, Austin, Texas) and the University at Albany-SUNY (UAlbany, Albany, N.Y.) announced plans for a joint five-year, $320M program to accelerate the development of next-generation lithography. They signed a letter of intent to begin negotiations to form a strategic alliance, to be known as International SEMATECH North (ISMTN). The alliance is expected to initiate an EUV program, to be managed by ISMT and housed in UAlbany's 300 mm wafer cleanroom complex.
• New Vision Systems (NVS, Cambridge, Mass.) announced that its ARGUS software has been selected for fabwide lithography advanced process control (APC) by a major U.S. chipmaker. It was initially deployed in a 200 mm plant operated by this manufacturer in 2001. Production utilization was begun in 2Q02 at its 300 mm facility.
• Lambda Physik AG (Göttingen, Germany) has acquired 98% of the capital stock of Optomech GmbH (Göttingen), which produces laser tubes for Lambda Physik under cleanroom conditions. Optomech will become a fully consolidated majority shareholding of Lambda Physik, giving the laser supplier exclusive access to its supplier.
• Extraction Systems (Franklin, Mass.) has received multiple orders for its in-series cabinet lithography filter systems from three major North American chipmakers. The filter systems will be used to remove molecular contaminants and particles from the air-handling systems in 193 nm exposure tool enclosures.
• ASML (Veldhoven, Netherlands) announced the opening of its North American Training Center to educate customers and employees on the latest developments in semiconductor manufacturing. Located near Tempe, Ariz., the 113,000 ft² facility includes Class 100 cleanroom space, 23 classrooms and three computer labs. It will train >16,000 people per year when at full capacity.
• Photronics Inc. (Brookfield, Conn.) has expanded its ability to supply phase-shift and optical proximity correction masks to customers in Europe from its facility in Manchester, England. The company's production of an embedded attenuated phase-shift mask (EAPSM) for use in Philips'wafer fab in Nijmegen, Netherlands, is believed to be the first PSM produced by a global mask supplier from a facility in Europe.
• Coherent Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has received a multi-year contract from International SEMATECH (ISMT, Austin, Texas) for lasers used to develop advanced photomasks. The agreement targets laser systems at wavelengths below 200 nm, which will be required to fabricate masks for the sub-70 nm technology nodes.

For additional information on lithography, go to www.semiconductor.net/lithography .