Applied to revamp e-beam strategy with new tool
By Mark LaPedus
Semiconductor Business News
(10/02/02 03:17 p.m. EST)
MONTEREY -- In a major change of strategy to reverse its misfortunes, Applied Materials Inc.'s Etec Systems unit is preparing to launch an electron-beam, reticle-writing tool, based on a new, high-throughput architecture, SBN has learned.
At the BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology in Monterey on Tuesday, Etec presented a technical paper on a new, e-beam, based on a “raster shaped beam” (RSB) technology for 70- and 50-nm chip designs.
But it turns out that Etec was presenting more than just a paper. A spokeswoman for Etec confirmed the company is planning to develop and sell a new tool based on RSB technology. “We will announce it early next year,” the spokeswoman told SBN.
The new offering represents a departure for Etec, which is struggling to gain market acceptance for its new e-beam tool--the Mebes eXara. Introduced last year, the eXara was late to the market and has garnered only a handful of orders, according to analysts.
For years, Etec of Hayward, Calif. has been selling e-beam tools, based on both raster scan and “Gaussin” mask-writing techniques. The company has also claimed that raster scan is far superior to competitive vector-based shaped beam tools from the likes of Hitachi, JEOL, Leica, and Toshiba.
With RSB, however, Etec is taking a hybrid approach to e-beams. RSB makes use of raster scan, but not “Gaussin” technology. Instead, it deploys shaped beam techniques used in competitive tools to boost overall write times in photomask production, according to analysts.
The Etec spokeswoman downplayed the company's change in strategy, but confirmed the RSB technology will enable faster throughput in advanced mask production.
According to the paper presented by Etec at BACUS, an RSB-based e-beam is two times faster in terms of throughput over the company's exiting Mebes eXara tool.
“RSB is built on and extends the capability of the 50-kV Mebes platform,” according to the paper. “The beam is shaped as it is scanned, printing the mask pattern on a calibrated flash grid. Complex OPC patterns are efficiently tiled by combining relatively small maximum shape size with a high flash rate of 100MHz,” the paper stated.
“The maximum shape size and the current density can be adjusted to match a wide set of mask applications. Proximity effects are corrected with dose modulation using real-time computation,” the paper said.
The new tool is designed to reverse a series of misfortunes for Etec. In 2000, Applied entered the e-beam business by acquiring Etec in a stock-swap deal reportedly worth $1 billion. Etec is the world's largest e-beam vendors in terms of install base (see Jan. 12, 2000 story ).
In recent years, however Etec has been losing market share. The company was more than a year late in delivering its next-generation, e-beam system--a move that opened the door for its rivals, such as JEOL, Hitachi, Leica, and Toshiba (see July 27 story ).
Last year, Etec finally rolled out its new eXara e-beam for 0.10-to-0.07-micron IC processes. Co-developed with industry consortium International Sematech, Etec executives claimed the e-beam is the world's fastest in terms of overall throughput (see Sept. 27 story ).
So far, Etec has shipped only a handful of eXara systems, reportedly to IBM, Samsung, and others, sources said. But sources believe that Etec is still having trouble making the system work, reportedly due to undisclosed technical snags. |
