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Technology Stocks : JMAR Technologies(JMAR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: timwa who wrote (7591)	3/17/1999 12:20:00 AM
From: Candle stick	Respond to of 9695

JMAR in the news. Great article Tim. Everyone should read the following: (from semiconductor.net ) X-ray lithography Among NGL tools, only one technology offers a pre-production lithography system, X-ray. A decade of experience and development has resulted in the integration of all components, from X-ray source and stepper to resists and defect-free masks. XRL's biggest advantage is that it is known to work, said Jerry Silverman, technology champion from IBM (East Fishkill, N.Y.). Aggressively promoted in Japan, XRL has been used in the fabrication of GaAs devices at Sanders, a Lockheed-Martin company, and to pattern six million transistor, 400 MHz PowerPC microprocessors on 8 in. silicon wafers at IBM (Fig. 2). The 1 nm X-rays mean the absence of thin film interference effects and thus excellent process latitude. Feasibility is not an issue. The most expensive component, the synchrotron X-ray source, has demonstrated reliability >98% and is expected to support 15 or more steppers. Even cost of ownership can be acceptably low for high-volume production, where 12 steppers reduce the source portion of total cost to 4%. The production of 1X masks, however, continues to pose problems in the realm of image placement, CD and defect control and in the development and commercial availability of suitable e-beam mask writers. Can you make a mask and meet all error budgets and yields? "With a mask area 1/16th that of a 4X mask, we believe so," Silverman said. Researchers at IBM are currently developing a mask writer with features to meet 100 and 70 nm generations. X-ray steppers can operate at atmospheric pressure, in a helium environment, use grazing incidence mirrors and instead of a lens system, have a beam line. The current pre-production tools have throughput nearly a quarter of the required production-level 60 wph. X-ray Lithography tools that use synchrotron sources such as those from Canon and SVG Lithography position the wafer vertically to access the horizontal X-ray beam. Canon's pre-production system is installed at Mitsubishi. Later this year, a second-generation production XRL tool, the XRA-1000, will be shipped to ASET for research but is useable in manufacturing. Point X-ray sources Generating X-rays for semiconductor lithography applications can be accomplished with GeV superconducting synchotrons or with high-temperature, high-density plasma sources. A synchrotron is economical for high-volume production, because it can feed multiple steppers. However, for process development and moderate volume production, point sources may provide an attractive alternative. A granular point X-ray source resembles an excimer laser system used in DUV lithography tools. Two approaches are being developed, laser plasma and dense plasma focus (DPF) sources. Science Research Laboratory (SRL, Somerville, Mass.) has a kilowatt-class, DPF source that features an all-solid-state driver with energy "snubbing" to extend the lifetime of plasma discharge electrodes and improve reliability. Using concentric anode and cathode, kilowatts of usable X-ray power can be generated at the point source for throughput to 20 wph. The DPF source is being integrated with the SAL (South Burlington, Vt.) XRS2000 X-ray stepper and will be used for production of GaAs MMIC chips at Sanders. The laser plasma X-ray source developed at JMAR Research uses a diode-pumped solid-state laser to produce 150-1000 psec pulses at kilohertz repetition rates. In a helium environment, the source focusses 1 × 1015 watts/cm2 onto a copper target, generating a plasma that spherically radiates 1 nm X-rays. A collimator is used to obtain a synchrotron-like beam. High powers are achieved by combining multiple laser modules in a single system. A beta tool aimed at 24 300 mm wph is currently under development for test and evaluation by 2000.