JMAR Technologies Awarded $13 Million DARPA Contract
Key Milestone for New Lithography Technology
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 1998--JMAR Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq/NM:JMAR - news), a provider of precision micro-technology products and systems, Thursday announced a key $13 million government contract which the company believes significantly increases its chances of capturing an important share of the multi-billion dollar market for manufacturing equipment needed to produce future generations of far more powerful semiconductor chips.
JMAR President and Chief Executive Officer John S. Martinez, Ph.D., said that even moderate success with this technology in semiconductor manufacture would substantially enhance company revenues.
X-ray lithography is one of four sources of growth for JMAR. The other three are: (1) a precision measurement equipment business providing most of the company's present revenues, (2) a fabless semiconductor development business expected to begin providing earnings later this year, and (3) an advanced laser technology expected to significantly advance present manufacturing methods. Martinez said that each of the four represents new opportunities for substantial revenue growth within the next 18 months.
The $13,016,804 contract is from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to further advance the development of its PXS laser plasma X-ray source for advanced semiconductor lithography applications. The primary goal of this contract is to produce and deliver a point source X-ray lithography system capable of supporting production rates of up to 24 300mm diameter semiconductor wafers per hour. A major milestone in this program will be the integration of JMAR's PXS into a mask-to-wafer alignment system, or aligner/stepper, now being developed under other DARPA programs. Together, these devices will form a point source lithography workstation.
''JMAR has been a leading developer of compact X-ray lithography (''XRL'') sources for the past several years,'' commented
Martinez. ''This major new $13 million contract, the largest purchase order received by JMAR since its founding in 1987, demonstrates the continuing confidence of the U.S. government in our patented approach to this potential multi-billion dollar market opportunity. To put this in context, in 1997 JMAR reported a net profit of $1.8 million on total sales of $21.5 million. This contract builds on the more than $10 million of company and customer funding that has already been invested to date in JMAR's XRL Program,'' he said.
''The need for smaller, more powerful semiconductors for future military and commercial applications continues to intensify and
with that so does the need for more advanced manufacturing solutions, '' Martinez noted. ''Lithography is one of the most critical steps in the production of semiconductors. It is a photographic process which copies intricate computer-generated electronic circuit designs onto the chips.''
Martinez continued, ''To produce the high performance electronic systems of tomorrow, manufacturers need a cost effective way to squeeze more electrical circuits into smaller spaces. The smallest semiconductor circuit feature sizes in full-scale production today are approximately 0.25 micron. Processes based on X-ray lithography have already demonstrated their ability to surpass present circuit density limitations, thereby paving the way for production of new generations of much higher performance semiconductors having circuit feature sizes of 0.13, 0.10 and 0.07 microns.
''The $13 million contract includes the previously announced $2.3 million advanced by ARL to JMAR earlier this year in anticipation of the finalization of negotiations for the complete contract,'' Martinez added. ''The complete contract consists of nine major tasks and spans a minimum of two government fiscal years. Accordingly, as has been the case with our prior XRL contracts, this contract will be funded on an incremental fiscal year basis.''
Presently there are two different methods for producing X-rays used in lithography. The first requires the use of synchrotrons, which are very large immobile radiation sources. When employed for X-ray lithography, the synchrotrons are connected to multiple steppers which are devices that position semiconductor wafers behind a mask containing the circuit pattern to be imprinted onto the wafer by the X-ray ''light'' source.
The second method is a point source such as JMAR's PXS designed to supply X-rays to a single stepper, similar to current optical lithography processes. The PXS focuses intense light beams generated by the company's patented Britelight(tm) all-solid state laser onto a target to generate bursts of X-rays having characteristics similar to those produced by synchrotrons. As with the synchrotrons, these X-rays are then transmitted through a mask to produce the desired circuit images on the underlying wafer. Subsequent processing of the wafers converts those images into tiny electrical circuits.
''To date, much of the industry's reluctance to adopt X-ray lithography on a large scale appears to be centered on the high cost
and time required to modify current factory designs to accommodate synchrotrons,'' commented Richard M. Foster, president of JMAR Research Inc., the JMAR unit responsible for this program. ''JMAR's PXS is designed specifically to overcome these issues. We believe that, when fully developed, it will provide the basis for a cost effective lithography system, no larger than today's optical lithography stations, with the means to produce circuit features of 0.13 microns and much smaller.''
For additional background on JMAR's advanced lithography program, please refer to the news release issued by the company on Jan. 13, 1998. This release can be found on JMAR's website at: www.jmar.com.
Pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements regarding JMAR's future sales or profit growth, competitive position or products, projects, or processes currently under development and the ability of the company to successfully introduce those products into the commercial marketplace or to apply or otherwise transfer those products, projects or processes to alternate applications are forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements, including delays in shipment or cancellation of orders, failure of expected orders to materialize, concentration of sales to certain markets and customers, timing of future orders, customer reorganizations, failure of advanced technology to perform as predicted, uncertainties associated with the timing of the funding of government contracts, fluctuations in demand, delays in development, introduction and acceptance of new products, changing business and economic conditions in various geographic
regions, natural events such as earthquakes, flood and fire and the other risks detailed from time-to-time in the company's reports which are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
JMAR Technologies develops, manufactures and markets precision measurement, process control and laser manufacturing systems, provides custom semiconductor products for the microelectronics industry and is a leading developer of advanced lithography point sources for production of future higher performance semiconductors.
Contact:
JMAR Technologies, San Diego
Dennis E. Valentine, 619/535-1706
jmar.com
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