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Technology Stocks : General Lithography -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (1057)	7/13/1998 4:50:00 PM
From: Brad Rogers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1305

Toshiba describes breakthrough in processor lithography By Anthony Cataldo TOKYO - Engineers from Toshiba Corp. say they have cleared two hurdles in the fabrication of future microprocessors by finding ways to improve production throughput and to enhance the precision of circuits with gate lengths of 0.15 micron or less. Toshiba's method, which combines deep-ultraviolet optical technology and electron-beam lithography in a single manufacturing process flow, has been broached by several research groups over the past four years. These researchers say that "mixing and matching" deep-ultraviolet technology with the superior resolution of e-beam equipment is the best way to build devices that offer pattern resolutions as low as 100 nm, but which can be manufactured at a faster rate using today's optical steppers. Toshiba will present its findings this week at the Microprocesses and Nanotechnology Conference in Kyoungju, South Korea. Toshiba's method is similar to other proposals in many respects. After the wafer is coated with resist, those mask patterns that are less than 150 nm long are handled first, using e-beam lithography equipment. Any patterns with resolutions above 150 nm are treated in the next step, using deep-UV steppers. (Toshiba used its own EX-8D EB writer, a Nikon Scanning KrF deep-UV stepper and a negative-tone resist that works with both e-beam and deep-UV). But the approach differs from others in two key ways, according to Toshiba. First, to increase production speed, the company used a biased deep-UV exposure tool that takes over part of the e-beam resist dosages, thus reducing the exposure time needed for the e-beam by 30 percent, the company said. And wafer throughput is seven wafers per hour - almost three times faster than using electron beam only, according to Toshiba. The company also claims it has found a way to improve the alignment accuracy of circuit patterns created by both electron-beam and deep-UV. Normally, the overlay error - which measures misalignment between circuit patterns - is an 80 nm for patterns created by both lithography technologies, and "80 nanometers is not good enough," said Shunko Magoshi, a processs-technology research specialist at Toshiba's Microelectronics Engineering Laboratory (Yokohama, Japan). "This could affect device performance." To get around the problem, Toshiba turned to Nikon's scanning deep-UV stepper, with better overlay characteristics, and developed algorithms to under-size and oversize the patterns. The result is an overlay accuracy of 50 nm, according to Toshiba. Magoshi said that the technology will be used for Toshiba RISC processors sometime after 2000 but that it won't be applicable to future DRAM devices, which will rely more on sophisticated capacitor structures. "This technology can be used for any type of logic device. The MPU requires smaller gate lengths than ASICs," he said.

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (1057)	7/13/1998 11:55:00 PM
From: SemiBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1305

Andrew, Regarding SVGI, I would appreciate your comments on the post exchange2000.com generally. The post also cites today's Wall Street Journal (I didn't read it) which stating that Intel does not intend on deviating from its "copy exact" policy. Regarding SVGI's vertical furnace technology: SVG Introduces Rapid Vertical Furnace for 300 mm processing Evolutionary Tool Offers Significant Process and Cost-of-Ownership Advantages for a Wide Range of Semiconductor Thin Film Applications SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 13, 1998-- Silicon Valley Group Inc. (NASDAQ:SVGI - news), a leading supplier of wafer processing systems to the worldwide semiconductor industry, today unveiled its Thermco Division's new RVP-300 Series rapid vertical processing (RVP) system -- a production-ready 300 mm tool with process capabilities covering a wide range of atmospheric and low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) films. Based on the company's field-proven AVP/RVP product platform, the RVP-300 Series offers chipmakers the cost-of-ownership and productivity advantages of a batch wafer processing system, while delivering uniformity and temperature control on par with today's leading-edge, single-wafer rapid thermal processing (RTP) tools. According to Thermco Division President Jeff Kowalski, SVG's ability to transfer its time-tested and proven thermal technology platforms for advanced applications in the 300 mm era gives customers a valuable market advantage. ''As chipmakers transition to 300 mm production, cost of ownership and reliability become more critical to success than ever before. The significant capital investment needed to transition into this new production era leaves no room for costly ramping of new, unproven processing equipment,'' said Kowalski. To deliver its breakthrough performance for sub-quarter micron processing requirements, the RVP-300 Series leverages advanced temperature sensing and control technologies. This includes the revolutionary Clairvoyant model-based temperature control (MBTC) technology, which enables superior process uniformity within the wafer and across the load. The RVP-300 Series also features SVG's proprietary FastRamp(R) technology, which ramps temperature up at a rate of 100 degrees C per minute and down at a rate of 50 degrees C per minute. Providing slip-free wafer processing, FastRamp technology addresses the limited thermal budgets associated with larger substrates by drastically reducing cycle times. As a result of these performance features, the system is the first to demonstrate arsenic-doped TEOS (tetraethylorthosilicate) film deposition on 300 mm wafers. In addition, the RVP-300 Series offers reduced chemical consumption through a proprietary, highly efficient delivery system that uses one-tenth the doping chemicals of competitive delivery systems. This reduction in consumables provides chipmakers with significant cost-of-ownership advantages for volume production of advanced films, as well as excellent control over film thickness and doping uniformity. ''With production units of the RVP-300 Series already in the field, SVG is the industry leader in 300 mm thermal processing capability. A high-throughput, batch processing system, the RVP-300's design is based on field-proven hardware and software reliability,'' Kowalski continued. ''These system attributes put the RVP-300 Series at the forefront of the vertical furnace market, which analysts anticipate will surpass $1.5 billion by 2001.'' SVG reports that it shipped multiple RVP-300 Series systems to a major DRAM manufacturer during the first quarter of calendar 1998. The company currently has three RVP-300 Series tools' in full operation in its Thermco Division's applications lab, located in San Jose. These systems are available to customers for joint development programs and demonstrations. The tools process capabilities include thermal oxidation, anneals, nitrides, polysilicon, doped-polysilicon, TEOS oxides and doped TEOS oxide.

To: Andrew Vance who wrote (1057)	7/14/1998 12:42:00 AM
From: jeffbas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1305

Andrew, I thought that your comment about not switching systems until it is proven that an existing system upgrade does not do the job was very insightful, in view of training, parts and support issues on very complex equipment. PLAB has bought a UTEK Ultrabeam (name?) product and I possibly a Leica one. That is an industry of suppliers to maskmakers that has been dominated by ETEC, which has jacked up the prices a lot. Would you care to speculate why they might be considering alternate suppliers?