SEZ Cuts 50 Jobs
APA-Economic News Service, 6/26/2008

SEZ (Villach, Austria), which was acquired by Lam Research in March, has decided to cut 50 jobs in all its divisions. More

CNTs That Look Like Asbestos, Behave Like Asbestos
PR Newswire, 5/20/2008

A major study published in Nature Nanotechnology suggests some forms of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could be as harmful as asbestos if inhaled in sufficient quantities. The study used established methods to see if specific types of nanotubes have the potential to cause mesothelioma — a cancer of the lung lining that can take 30-40 years to appear following exposure. The results show that long, thin multi-walled carbon CNTs that look like asbestos fibers, behave like asbestos fibers. More

Haze, Still Misunderstood, Costing Industry $1B a Year
Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media — Semiconductor International, 5/7/2008

Arguably the single largest yield detractor in the semiconductor industry, costing the industry about a billion dollars every year, micro-contamination is still very little understood or acknowledged by semiconductor fabs. Industry experts discussed the issues and various solutions in a session earlier this month on time-dependent haze at ESTECH 2008. More

Clean Steps Struggle to Minimize Material Loss
Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media — Semiconductor International, 4/10/2008

As noted throughout Sematech's Surface Preparation and Cleaning Conference, cleaning processes are increasingly tasked to keep material losses to an absolute minimum. Texas Instruments's Brian Kirkpatrick gave an invited presentation on the impact of material loss on advanced CMOS performance, pointing out that there are no easy solutions. More

Webcast: Wafer Cleaning Solutions for 45 and 32 nm
Moderated by Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media — Semiconductor International, 4/15/2008

Recorded as a live panel at Sematech's 2008 Surface Preparation and Cleaning Conference (SPCC) in Austin, Texas, the discussion focuses on front-end-of-line (FEOL) wafer cleaning and photoresist strip challenges and solutions for the 45 and 32 nm device generations. Industry experts present the real-world problems and solutions surrounding a plethora of new materials being used and considered, including related environmental issues. View

TSMC Develops Resist Ashing Method
US Fed News, 2/28/2008

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) inventors were awarded a patent for a "method for forming a damascene structure by providing a single process solution for resist ashing while avoiding and repairing plasma etching damage as well as removing absorbed moisture in the dielectric layer." More

AMAT Develops Wafer Cleaning Method
US Fed News, 3/10/2008

A patent was awarded to Applied Materials for "an apparatus for wet processing individual wafers comprising; a means for holding the wafer; a means for providing acoustic energy to a non-device side of the wafer; and a means for flowing a fluid onto a device side of the wafer." 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

Lam to Acquire SEZ to Help Grow Clean Business
Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media — Semiconductor International, 12/11/2007

Lam Research Corp. (Fremont, Calif.) announced that it has signed a binding transaction agreement to acquire the SEZ Group (Villach, Austria). With Lam's No. 1 position in dry plasma etch and SEZ's leadership in single-wafer wet cleans, the combined clean business unit that will be created is likely to capture a significant share of the clean market. More

Damage During Cleans Evaluated by AFM
Staff — Semiconductor International, 11/7/2007

An increasing problem with no known solution is the damage of small structures during wafer cleaning. The damage is seen as pattern collapse or simply as missing structures, blown off the surface of the wafer by the force of the clean. It's already a well-known result of aggressive megasonic cleans, but can also result from aerosol jet cleaning and newer laser-induced plasma shockwave cleans. More

Group of 10 to Tackle Killer Particles
Staff — Semiconductor International, 8/31/2007

A group of 10 companies and research institutes is forming to tackle nanoparticles, a yield barrier for the 45 nm generation. They are held tightly to the surface by Van der Waals forces, a problem compounded by surface roughness. More