SPIE symposium expands manufacturing conference; highlights IC costs, APC

The 28th edition of SPIE's microlithography symposium will feature an expanded version of the advanced microelectronics manufacturing conference that the organization inaugurated in 2002. The addition of two topics—one covering IC costs and performance and the other advanced process control (APC) and automation—will raise to four the total number of primary conferences during the advanced manufacturing segment. Returning from last year are two sessions covering design and process integration and the characterization of processes and materials in IC manufacturing.

During this segment's plenary presentations, two speakers will address different financial aspects of advanced manufacturing. Dan Hutcheson, president of VLSI Research, will cover the state of the industry and the steps needed to move forward two years into the deepest recession in the industry's history. Hutcheson says the speech will answer a question he and his coauthor, Jerry Hutcheson, first posed in an article published in Scientific American in 1996. They predicted that Moore's Law would run aground on economic, not technical, problems. They called this barrier "Moore's Wall," and Hutcheson promises to explore whether the industry has run into it.

Dick Deininger, the second speaker, will address the cost implication of using APC in high-volume manufacturing. AMD's director of manufacturing technologies, Deininger says AMD has begun using APC in its flash and logic fabs. He notes that the combination of shrinking features and 300-mm wafer processing demand APC's cost-effective benefits.

The annual symposium will be held February 23–28 in Santa Clara, CA, at the Santa Clara Convention Center and Westin Hotel. More than 100 exhibitors have signed on. The four microlithography conferences are: emerging lithographic technologies; metrology, inspection, and process control for microlithography; advances in resist technology and processing; and optical microlithography.

An additional highlight will be a joint session on contamination issues in lithography. Another joint session will involve BACUS and a photolithography technical group in a panel discussion. Another panel discussion will take on the topic of whether the industry can afford to follow a roadmap with a two-year cycle.

On the opening day of the symposium, Chris Mack is scheduled to address whether the semiconductor industry "as we know it" is coming to an end. Mack, who is director of research in the FINLE division and vice president of lithography technology for KLA-Tencor, chose the provocative topic to discuss the technical and economic drivers of Moore's law. One of the questions Mack will address in his speech will be when the "next leap" in lithography will happen, if at all.

Robert Scranton, director of recording head technology for IBM's Almaden Research Center, will follow Mack and tackle the use of nanotechnology in magnetic data storage. Scranton says his speech will touch on the fact that the lithographic dimensions for magnetic recording have shrunk more rapidly than they have for the semiconductor industry.

More information on SPIE's microlithography symposium may be found at www.spie.org/info.