Varian Semiconductor Awarded Key Angle Control Patent
Tuesday October 22, 7:58 am ET
VIISta Varian Positioning System -VPS- Enables Superior Device Uniformity and Precision Angle Control
GLOUCESTER, Ma.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2002--Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc. (Nasdaq: VSEA - News), the leading supplier of ion implantation systems, today announced that it has been issued U.S. Patent Number 6,437,350 for "Methods and Apparatus for Adjusting Beam Parallelism in Ion Implanters".
This technology is the foundation of the company's "Varian Positioning System" (VPS(TM)), an ion beam incident angle control feature, coupled with the high tilt capability necessary to achieve the atomic level precision demanded by the most advanced semiconductors devices.
"The Varian Positioning System provides the electromechanical and beam optical control that ensures that the ions impact upon the wafer in the correct location and at the desired incident angle," said Alan Sheng, Ph.D., Varian Semiconductor's vice president of engineering. "As device scaling continues, the precision with which dopants are placed becomes more and more critical. In fact, at device nodes of 70nm and beyond, critical dimensions such as pattern shifts, shadowing, and lateral junction abruptness are shrinking to thickness within a few atomic layers. Varian Semiconductor has anticipated this requirement with its Varian Positioning System."
The VIISta platform of parallel beam, single wafer implanters covers the entire range of ion implantation requirements, from 200eV through 3.75 MeV. The benefits of parallel beam systems center around their ability to precisely place dopants in the device structures.
"For medium current implants, the VIISta 810 HP provides exceptional control for Vt, channel and halo doping, leading to improved and consistent device operating characteristics, and yield across wafer," said Dr. Tony Renau, director of research and development at Varian Semiconductor. "In addition, the VIISta 810 HP provides the capability to perform single-step, zero degree tilt implants with unsurpassed angular precision and spatial uniformity to enhance well-to-well isolation characteristics leading to reduced margins for Shallow Trench Isolation and increased device packing density."
Dr. Renau continued, "For high current implants, the VIISta 80 delivers the capability to improve lateral junction abruptness control for Source Drain Extensions and increase the drive current of the device and processing speed. By virtue of the single wafer platform features, the VIISta 3000 high energy implanter also delivers the same level of doping precision as the VIISta 810 HP."
John Aldeborgh, vice president of sales and marketing at Varian Semiconductor, said, "This performance can not be matched with the traditional batch implanters. Batch implanters attempt to address this issue using reduced tilt angles, such as 2 or 3 degrees in quad mode. This is intended to "average" the significant angle errors at zero degree in batch systems. However, this approach cannot provide adequate precision in spatial uniformity and beam angle control for today's scaled devices. An inherent characteristic of today's advanced devices is a very high sensitivity to doping and angle variation. This sensitivity will be even greater in tomorrow's scaled devices, especially for System-on-a-Chip where memory functions are embedded with logic devices in densely packed arrays."
About Varian Semiconductor
Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates is the leading producer of ion implantation equipment used in the manufacture of semiconductors. The company is headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and operates worldwide. Varian Semiconductor maintains a web site at www.vsea.com. The information contained in the company's web site is not incorporated by reference into this release, and the web site address is included in this release as an inactive textual reference only.
Note: This release contains forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. For this purpose, the statements concerning the company's expectations regarding the invention discussed in this release, market share and technology leadership, technological capabilities and benefits are forward-looking statements and any statements using the terms "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "plans," or similar expressions are forward-looking statements. There are a number of important risks and factors that could cause actual events to differ materially from those suggested or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These include, among others, volatility in the semiconductor equipment industry; economic conditions in general and as they affect the company's customers; significant fluctuations in the company's quarterly operating results; the impact of rapid technological change; the company's dependence on the development and introduction of new products; the company's concentration on ion implantation systems and related products; concentration in the company's customer base and lengthy sales cycles; the highly competitive market in which the company competes; risks of international sales; foreign currency risks; and general economic conditions; and other factors identified in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, and the most recent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company cannot guarantee any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievement. The company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release. |
