Rick, et.al., here's the text of the announcement on BW:
BW0006 FEB 10,1997 3:01 PACIFIC 06:01 EASTERN
( BW)(PLASMA-&-MATERIALS)(PMAT) PMT ANNOUNCES BREAKTHROUGH IN
SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING
Business Editors
CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 1997--Plasma &
Materials Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: PMAT) (PMT), an international
supplier of etch and deposition equipment used to manufacture
semiconductors will announce today, at the DUMIC Conference in San
Jose, a breakthrough in the deposition of low dielectric constant
materials that could significantly increase the speed of
semiconductor devices.
PMT/Electrotech will present recent results using a proprietary
deposition technique that produces very low dielectric constant
(low-k) films that are two times lower than what is available today.
As the number of transistors on a logic device increase, the complex
interconnect scheme of wiring and insulating layers has proven to be
the bottleneck that limits the speed of the device. This is due to
an electrical time delay caused by the resistance of the wiring and
the capacitance of the insulating layers. The capacitance of the
insulating layers is directly proportional to the dielectric constant
of the material. By lowering the dielectric constant, the
capacitance is reduced and the electrical time delay is minimized. A
reduction in the electrical time delay will increase the speed of the
device.
"Every major semiconductor manufacturer of microprocessors and logic devices has low-k on their road map," said Greg Campbell, PMT's chief executive officer. "Equipment makers, including PMT, have been
developing high density plasma (HDP) chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
using fluorine as a dopant to lower-k but we are all stuck at 3.2 -
3.5. The ability to produce high quality films with a dielectric
constant of 2.0 is truly a breakthrough and a real tribute to the
Electrotech scientists who developed it. As a result, PMT will focus
all its CVD resources to further expand Flowfill's development and
evaluation efforts with customers worldwide."
Flowfill CVD
The low-k material developed by PMT/Electrotech relies on a novel
technique of mixing methyl silane gas with hydrogen peroxide in a
weakly ionized plasma and condensing the by-product as a liquid onto
the wafer. The film is then heat treated to produce a very high
quality insulating layer that is capable of filling .1 micron gaps
without voids or seams. Because the film is deposited in a liquid
state, the surface tension forces of the liquid pull the film flat --
a self planarizing effect. The system's ability to fill small gaps
and planarize simultaneously eliminates the need for CMP on some
devices. The end result is increasing yields and a decrease in
equipment costs, manufacturing time, and defect levels. The sales
price for PMT's Flowfill CVD ranges from approximately $1.4 million
to $2.5 million, depending on the configuration of the system.
PMT recently acquired Electrotech and now provides a broad line of
advanced manufacturing systems that are used for three of the four
major processing steps in the manufacture of a semiconductor device:
etch, physical vapor deposition (PVD), and chemical vapor deposition
(CVD). The Company's corporate headquarters are located in
Chatsworth, north of Los Angeles. Manufacturing is conducted in
Newport, Wales and Chatsworth, California. PMT operates worldwide
through wholly owned subsidiaries in the U.K., Japan, Germany,
France, and South Korea.
--30--mi/sf*
CONTACT: Plasma & Materials Technologies, Inc.
Frederick Reynolds, 818/886-8000 Ext. 155
freynolds@pmat.com
pmat.com. |
