No Holiday for Maskmakers

These days, some people within the lithography community are fond of talking about the upcoming "Maskmakers' Holiday" — a reference to the idea that next-generation lithography (NGL) techniques will relieve the pressure and complexity that has overwrought the maskmaking industry of late. Whether that "holiday" is real or imagined (any maskmaker will quickly point out that no such holiday will ever exist), it's certainly not here yet. Perhaps as evidence, maskmakers have been prominent newsmakers recently, apparently keeping quite busy with activities relating to current and future production nodes.

Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. (Tokyo) recently formed an agreement with IBM Corp . (Burlington, Vt.) to jointly develop photomasks for IC production at the 45 nm technology node. Some $200M is expected to be invested by the two companies, which will develop a photomask process intended to enable early production of 45 nm devices.

Development work will be conducted at IBM's plant in Burlington, and evaluated at IBM's advanced 300 mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y. As part of this development work, Toppan will assign engineers to work with IBM's mask development team in Burlington. With the combination of the existing 65 nm photomask manufacturing technologies of the two companies, the goal is to develop 45 nm photomasks that will be ready for production around mid-2007, when industry demand is expected to gather momentum. Toppan plans to transfer the jointly developed manufacturing process from IBM's Burlington operation to its own plants, and to establish its own production system in order to provide customers with 45 nm photomasks for the early stages of commercialization.

"IBM and Toppan will bring together formidable skills and resources to create an industry-leading 45 nm photomask technology," said Douglas Grose, general manager of technology development and manufacturing at IBM. "This agreement is a logical extension of our strategy to develop a common, global process technology platform with key semiconductor fabrication companies."

Naoki Adachi, president of Toppan, said, "The expertise accumulated in cooperation with IBM will help Toppan maintain its position as the world's top photomask manufacturer, even at the 45 nm process node."

In fact, it was just a month earlier that Toppan secured its No. 1 position in the photomask market with the successful completion of its acquisition of DuPont Photomasks Inc. (DPI, Round Rock, Texas). The agreement, first announced last October, made DPI a wholly owned subsidiary of Toppan. The company, now called Toppan Photomasks Inc ., will remain headquartered in Round Rock. Toppan combined its existing mask business with Toppan Photomasks' business, making it the world's largest maskmaker. Akihiro Nagata, a senior managing director of Toppan and head of Toppan's Electronics Division, was named chairman of the Toppan Photomasks board of directors. Marshall Turner will remain CEO.

Photronics Inc . (Brookfield, Conn.) has apparently been busy, with its sales of $112.9M and net income of $10.6M last quarter setting new quarterly records for the maskmaker. Sales for the second quarter were up 16.2%, compared with $97.2M for the second quarter of 2004. The company also reported its sales for the first six months of 2005, which were $214.1M, up 14.1% over the same period last year. Net income for the first six months of fiscal 2005 were $15.1M.

Constantine Macricostas, Photronics chairman and then CEO, discussed several initiatives launched during the quarter. "First, I am excited that we have greatly expanded the depth and quality of our management team with the addition of Michael Luttati," he said. "As our new chief executive officer, I am confident that he will lead the Photronics team to new highs." Luttati's appointment was announced earlier in May, with his position taking effect in June. He will also serve on the company's board of directors. Luttati most recently served as executive vice president and COO for Axcelis Technologies Inc . (Beverly, Mass.).

Noted Sean T. Smith, Photronics CFO, in a statement, "This performance continues to provide the company with the strategic flexibility to invest in new growth initiatives, such as increasing our presence in the flat panel display mask market in Taiwan, opening a new R&D center in Korea, and in further developing our 65 nm capabilities."

Photronics announced, also in May, its strategy to drive advanced photomask R&D through a network of global corporate R&D centers. Its photomask R&D center in Austin, Texas, and the recently launched Photronics-PKL R&D center in Cheon-an, Korea, are working with various customers to develop fabrication processes for ICs down through the 45 nm node. The Austin facility is scheduled to begin 65 nm qualification this year, and has launched the infrastructure options sorting phase for 45 nm technology. The new R&D center in Korea is being tasked with developing 65 and 45 nm mask technologies required by customers located primarily in the Asia region.

Meanwhile, in other aspects of the maskmaking business, Heidelberg Instruments GmbH (Heidelberg, Germany) announced the successful installation of a DWL66 maskless lithography system at the UCLA Nanoelectronics Research Facility in Los Angeles. The research facility will use the system to make masks in-house for various customer projects such as optical gratings, photonic structures, and MOS and MEMS devices.

On the repair side, Carl Zeiss SMT (Oberkochen, Germany) has acquired NaWoTec GmbH (Rossdorf, Germany). Zeiss developed the e-beam-based mask repair system MeRiT MG in close cooperation with NaWoTec. "With the acquisition of NaWoTec, Carl Zeiss SMT is adding to its technology portfolio excellent application know-how of mask repair processes, highly flexible application software allowing easy adaptation for further applications, and computer-controlled gas injection hardware to precisely control chemical reactions."

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