Good NEWS.....
1.) Canon 300-mm stepper up and running at I300I facility
SANTA CLARA, Calif.-Canon USA Inc.'s Semiconductor Equipment Division announced
today that its 300-mm FPA-3000EX3L deep-UV stepper at the International 300-mm
Initiative (I300I) facility in Austin, Texas, is now operational and that I300I
and Intel have accepted the machine following a successful performance test in
which the EX3L exposed more than 1,500 12-inch wafers without failure.
Having the stepper in operation at I300I will free 300-mm process, materials,
and equipment developers from the bottleneck caused by a lack of 300-mm wafers
with device patterns. "Our goal remains to help our members get a head start on
the competitive advantages in productivity and technology that 300-mm conversion
will bring," said Frank Robertson, vice president and general manager of I300I.
"Having a 300-mm stepper donated and in place early helps us stay ahead of the
curve on providing information to our members across the globe."
Due to the consortium's limited funding, Intel purchased the machine for use by
I300I under a one-year contract that will allow sharing of resultant data with
all member companies. Intel will also develop its own exclusive processes on the
stepper.
Daniel Enloe, Intel assignee and director of patterning technologies for I300I,
regards the EX3L stepper as a technology enabler. "It will let us keep our many
other process demonstrations moving at a good pace," Enloe said. "Now we can
print feature sizes down to 0.18 microns with some advanced techniques such as
phase-shift masks, and make more relevant demonstrations for our member
companies."
Earlier this year, Selete, a 300-mm development consortium of Japanese and
Korean IC manufacturers, installed a Canon EX3L at its facility. That tool is in
operation.
The EX3L is based on Canon's FPA-3000EX3 DUV stepper platform, but has a
modified 300-mm wafer stage. The platform has an all-quartz lens with a
numerical aperture of 0.6 to achieve production resolution of 0.25 micron over a
22X22-mm image field. It has a high-intensity illumination system using a Cymer
KrF excimer laser and Canon's new CQUEST II pattern-independent modified
illumination system.
2.) SIA to accelerate roadmap updates
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.-Not only has the pace of chip technology accelerated in the
latest version of the Semiconductor Industry Association's roadmap, but the SIA
roadmap itself will be updated more frequently in the future, according to Paolo
A. Gargini, director of technology strategy at Intel Corp.
The SIA has decided to issue revised technology roadmaps every two years instead
of every three years, said Gargini, who is vice chairman of the National
Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors. The 1997 roadmap was released in early
December, expanding on the detail provided by the 1994 SIA document (see Dec. 1
summary of the 1997 SIA roadmap)
The next SIA roadmap will be released in 1999 followed by another one in 2001,
promised Gargini, during a technology presentation before the annual Industry
Strategy Symposium at an exclusive ocean resort on the Monterey Peninsula. In
addition to expanding on technology milestone targets, the SIA hopes to
incorporate other industry roadmaps into its next update, Gargini said. The new
SIA roadmap will also incorporate a new section on semiconductor market trends,
he added.
The 1997 SIA roadmap greatly expanded on the detail of technology milestones for
the industry over the next 14 years. For the first time, the 1997 update mapped
separate courses for DRAM and microprocessors. It also designated
microprocessors as a co-driver of technology along with DRAMs. And, the roadmap
identified separate targets for low-cost and high-performance logic ICs.
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