Our January issue features an interesting article on sustainable chamber cleaning solutions. The authors, from Linde, note that sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) recovery and on-site generated fluorine (F₂) can help increase productivity and reduce environmental impact. That's a great "win-win" cleaning solution! Remember that you can always find other useful information at our Clean Processing Info Channel:
www.semiconductor.net/clean

Peter Singer, Editor-in-Chief
sieditor@aol.com

Hynix Develops Photoresist Cleaning Solution
US Fed News, 1/7/2008

According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Disclosed herein are photoresist cleaning solutions useful for cleaning a semiconductor substrate in the last step of a developing step when photoresist patterns are formed. Also disclosed herein are methods for forming photoresist patterns using the solutions." More

Entegris Reports Q4 Trends Better Than Expected
Business Wire, 1/8/2008

Entegris Inc. said that business trends for the company through its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, 2007, were better than expected. Company management made these comments at the 10th Annual Needham Growth Stock Conference in New York City. More

Akrion Ships Single-Wafer System
PR Newswire, 1/3/2008

Akrion Inc. closed 2007 by shipping another Velocity single-wafer cleaning system to a major logic device manufacturer in Asia. More

Lam Launches Public Tender Offer for SEZ
Thomson Financial News Super Focus, 1/8/2008

Lam Research Corp. announced a public tender offer for Austrian semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker SEZ Holdings of 38 Swiss francs per SEZ share. More

Applied Materials Awarded Cleaning Patent
US Fed News, 1/7/2008

Steven Verhaverbeke of Applied Materials has developed a semiconductor substrate treatment method. According to a description of the invention, released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention relates to the field of cleaning and conditioning semiconductor substrates, and in particular to the field of cleaning a silicon germanium substrate and preparing a silicon dioxide surface for bonding." More

Entrepix Hires Mello, Adds SEZ Capabilities
Staff — Semiconductor International, 1/10/2008

Entrepix Inc. (Tempe, Ariz.) said it will add surface conditioning services, based on SEZ technology, as a complement to its portfolio of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) outsourcing capabilities. The former vice president of sales and marketing at SEZ America, Jim Mello, has joined Entrepix as vice president of business development, focusing on the SEZ surface conditioning services and other new business opportunities. More

Sustainable Chamber Cleaning Solutions
Peter Lai and Paul Stockman, Linde Electronics, Murray Hill, N.J.; Greg Shuttleworth, Linde Electronics, Thornton Cleveleys, UK — Semiconductor International, 1/1/2008

Sustainable and production-proven chamber cleaning solutions allow device manufacturers to deliver increased productivity and reduce environmental impact while "taking out the trash." More

Lower Thermal Budgets Affect Contamination
Jerry Riddle, Tiger Optics LLC, Warrington, Pa. — Semiconductor International, 1/1/2008

With lower-temperature processes, contaminants that were not there at higher temperatures are increasingly present and remain in the process tools, pressure vessels, carriers and, in some cases, on the surface of the wafers. Users have had to find ways to monitor the presence of those contaminants more closely. More

32 nm Marked by Litho, Transistor Changes
Laura Peters, Lead Technical Editor — Semiconductor International, 1/1/2008

The transition from 45 to 32 nm is likely to involve some key material changes and a major change in lithography to double patterning for critical layers. Selections will be driven by costs and specific product needs. More