'Round The Circuit

Startup maps NGL advance

A small startup in the Netherlands is taking on the big guns of next-generation lithography. University-based Mapper Technology of Delft is developing a self-described alternative NGL system for ICs with geometries ≤45 nm. Mapper has received financial help in its quest from KT Venture Group. The venture capital arm of KLA-Tencor gave an undisclosed sum to the start-up under the terms of a new contract. The investment agreement calls for KLA also to provide engineering help.

Mapper is developing two tools based on the technology that gives the company its name: multiaperture pixel-by-pixel enhancement of resolution. The first system uses mask technology for a tool based on DUV steppers with a resolution of 45 nm and below. The second is a maskless lithography tool with digitally stored data transferred directly to the wafer through glass fibers, the startup says. Mapper expects to have its first systems ready in 2005 with production-ready tools on the market by 2007. At $15 million per tool, the systems will cost considerably less than NGL systems using extreme-UV technology.

Mapper was launched in 2000 at Delft University, which licensed the technology to Mapper for shares in the spin-off. Pieter Kruit, a company cofounder and chief technologist who invented the technique, is a professor of applied sciences at the university.

Upsurge seen for cleanrooms

A rebounding semiconductor industry will help cleanroom sales climb to more than $4 billion in 2006, a market research firm reports. In a new study, The McIlvaine Company of Northbrook, IL, says sales in 2002 will drop below the record $2.7 billion set in 2000, but will see double-digit growth over the next four years. The firm also predicts record sales of cleanroom consumables in 2006. In particular, glove sales of $1.2 billion will more than double their 2002 total. Sales of disposable clothing will grow to $634 million in 2006, topping the 2000 peak of $406 million, McIlvaine says.

The chip industry will account for 37% of cleanroom sales in 2006, an increase of 12% over 2002. Manufacturers of FPDs and the pharmaceutical-biotech market sector will also fuel a sales increase. The report notes that MEMS manufacturers will depend increasingly on ultraclean air to protect minute pumps and valves during production. The report also notes that China will be the world's fifth largest purchaser of cleanrooms by 2006. The United States will top the list of buyers four years from now, followed by Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Thailand, Malaysia, and France. Information: www.mcilvainecompany.com/cleanrooms.html

Corning unit proclaims lens

A unit of Corning boasts that it has developed a lithographic lens with the highest resolution of all objective lenses. Corning Tropel of Fairport, NY, says the 15x-reduction stepper objective lens has a numerical aperture of 0.85 and resolves features ≤70 nm. Selete, the Japanese research consortium, is using the device in a 157-nm lithography tool. Corning Tropel built the lens for Exitech, a manufacturer of laser microprocessing tools based in the United Kingdom.

Statistical book goes on-line

NIST and International Sematech have published an on-line version of a printed statistical guide that engineers and scientists have relied on for nearly four decades. The e-Handbook of Statistical Methods is an expanded and updated version of Handbook 91, Experimental Statistics, which NIST first published in 1963. The electronic version is a comprehensive compendium of experiment design, data analysis, quality control, and related statistical methods.

The handbook takes a problem-oriented approach to statistical problems so that engineers and scientists can find solutions quickly and return to "their primary work," Sematech says. Case studies from the semiconductor industry and NIST labs illustrate statistical approaches to solving problems. The Web site has links to integrated software. A free analysis package called Dataplot can be downloaded from the site. A CD version is also available. The e-Handbook is available at www.nist.gov/stat.handbook.

In other news, NIST says it has introduced a SIMS tool that provides very high sensitivity for detecting and distinguishing elements at trace levels with micron-level spatial resolution. One of only three such tools in the United States, the IMS 1270 combines high secondary ion transmission and high mass resolution. The system simultaneously detects selected atomic species of the same element with different masses, making it suitable for measuring isotope ratios for elements at trace levels, NIST says. The instrument will be used to examine ultra-high-sensitivity measurements of dopant elements and metals in silicon wafers. Information: albert.fahey@nist.gov.

SEMI elevates Hadfield

SEMI has appointed Victoria Hadfield president of its North American operations. She succeeds Bobby Greenberg, who is stepping down after serving as president of SEMI North America for the past year. Hadfield most recently served as senior vice president of industry advocacy for the trade association. Hadfield joined SEMI in 1987. In a related announcement, SEMI has designated its office in Washington, D.C., as the official headquarters of SEMI North America.