Collaborations Mark SPIE Announcements

As the SPIE Microlithography Conference gets underway this week in Silicon Valley, four different players in process equipment and materials announced business and technology collaborations.

First off was laser light source supplier Cymer Inc. and metrology and measurement giant KLA-Tencor

Corp. Cymer holds the lion's share of the market for laser light sources used in exposure tools. The company said Tuesday that it will provide light source spectra data to KLA-Tencor; that data will be incorporated into its Prolith lithography optimization tool. In addition, the companies expect to continue to jointly develop enhancements to this capability for future Prolith revisions, they said.

The collaboration isn't new for the two companies; Cymer has been working with KLA on simulating the impact of laser bandwidth on critical dimensions for more than five years.

"The effect of laser bandwidth on critical dimensions becomes more significant with higher numerical apertures and shrinking process windows," Edward Charrier, GM at KLA's Process Analysis Division, said in a statement. "As these effects become progressively greater, we see a growing need to provide a more accurate representation of the light source spectrum available to our customers."

In other collaboration news out of SPIE, materials and materials handling specialist ATMI Inc. said Tuesday it was launching a direct pressure dispensing system for photoresists developed with lithography track tool supplier Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL).

ATMI and TEL Collaborate to Introduce Next Generation Pressure Dispense Technology New Innovative PDMPak Chemical Delivery System Eliminates Microbubbles for Advanced Photoresist

The PDMPak system, rolled out by ATMI subsidiary ATMI Packaging, enables improved track design wile minimizing microbubbles and misconnects, the company said. "ATMI Packaging's collaboration efforts on PDMPak has ensured a successful release and provided a delivery system for TEL's next generation pump system," Katsuhiro Tsuchiya, TEL's Clean Track Product marketing representative, said in a statement.

TEL, the leading track supplier according to VLSI Research, Inc, worked with ATMI to develop a comprehensive pressure dispense solution that actively improves the materials' integrity by significantly streamlining the chemical delivery system for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The new yield-increasing technology provides end-users with the ability to reduce material waste, and equipment maintenance, ultimately giving customers a consistent and unparalleled value platform. 

In operation, the PDMPak allows for removal of headspace gas prior to dispensing, prevents solvent loss, isolates chemicals from drive gas contamination and enables chemicals to last longer, ATMI said.