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Asia

TSMC touts 130-nm process

Releasing its latest production data, TSMC boasts that it has shipped more than 100,000 wafers processed at the 130-nm node. The Taiwan-based foundry leader also announced it has taped out more than 230 product designs with 130-nm linewidths. Meanwhile, TSMC says clients such as LSI Logic and Agere Systems have begun volume production of products using the foundry's low-k, 130-nm technology. Agere says DSPs made with the technology show a 20% improvement in both performance and power savings over competing chips made without the low-k technique.

TSMC expects to ship more than 400,000 200-mm-equivalent wafers in the 130-nm technology in 2003. By the end of the year, the company says capacity at its 300-mm Fab 12 in Hsinchu will reach approximately half of its total monthly installed capacity for 130-nm technology. In addition, TSMC has begun more than 20 client projects using its Nexsys 90-nm technology with copper and low-k dielectrics.

SMIC buys Veeco profiler

SMIC, the Chinese foundry company, has purchased several profilers from Veeco Instruments. The Dimension Vx 210 atomic force profilers will be shipped later this year to SMIC's fab in Shanghai. Veeco says the order is an important step for the vendor's growth in China. SMIC is the first pure-play foundry in China offering volume production on 200-mm wafers at linewidths ≤250 nm.

APC vendor signs distributor

An Israel-based metrology and APC systems supplier has found an exclusive distributor for Japan. Tevet Process Control Technologies of Yoknea'm Moshava has hired Hakuto to sell its line of IsTMS products for metrology and advanced process control. The products are based on large-spot-size broadband spectral reflectometry for in situ measurement of multiple topographies and stacks, Tevet says.

Nanoimprint tools installed

Waseda University in Tokyo expects to enhance its nanotechnology research with a new line of recently installed tools from EV Group (EVG). The Austria-based supplier installed systems for nanoimprinting, hot embossing, wafer alignment, and spray coating. Waseda University's Nanotechnology Research Laboratory is working on a government-supported molecular nanoengineering project. The supplier's EVG520HE system imprints uniform micron- and nanometer-scale features on polymer substrates. The technique is used for biomedical, bioMEMS, microfluidic, and microoptical devices, according to the university. EVG's OmniSpray coater dispenses photoresist or polymers on high-topography substrates up to 200 mm.

Europe

Entegris expands in Germany

Entegris of Chaska, MN, has installed an automated manufacturing line to meet demand from its European customers. The added capacity at the company's plant in Bad Rapaneau, Germany, enhances production of both 150- and 200-mm Ultrapak wafer carriers. The products are made of ultrapure polypropylene.

Venture ships EUV light

A German joint venture has shipped its first prototype of an EUV light source ahead of schedule. Xtreme Technologies shipped the source to Exitech, a British manufacturer of microsteppers. Lambda Physik and Jenoptik operate the venture on a 50-50 basis. Exitech works with the companies in a strategic research partnership. The light source generates a plasma at 2000°C to emit the EUV beam. The partners initially anticipated making their first sales in 2006.

Silane pact announced

Two materials specialists have signed an agreement to supply silane-based products. Epichem of Bromborough, England, and Degussa of Düsseldorf, Germany, will combine their silane product lines and expertise, the companies announced. Epichem has four divisions offering oxide, nitrides, metalorganics, gases, and surface coatings. Degussa is Germany's third-largest chemical company and a leader in specialty chemicals, according to Epichem.