INDUSTRY NEWS

Venture buys 300-mm tools

Applied Materials and Jenoptik Infab are among the tool suppliers providing equipment to the joint 300-mm development project between Siemens and Motorola in Dresden, Germany. Dubbed Semiconductor 300, the fab has purchased plasma etch, deposition, and inspection tools from Applied. Jenoptik is providing its WLS 300 automated wafer handler to the pilot line. The Jenoptik system incorporates a front-opening unified pod design developed by the vendor. The equipment uses bright-light techniques for inspecting wafers in a Class 1 minienvironment. The Applied tools were scheduled for delivery by the end of March 1998, and the vendor says more than 500 engineers and technologists are assigned to its 300-mm tool development programs. Semiconductor 300 will begin manufacturing 64-Mb DRAMs with 0.25-µm linewidths in early 1999, according to Applied.

SVG claims doping success

The Thermco division of Silicon Valley Group says it is the first company to successfully deposit arsenic-doped oxide films on 300-mm wafers using a TEAsat, or triethylarsenate, process. Currently used on 200-mm wafers, the technique is an enabling technology for high-volume production of 256-Mb DRAMs, SVG points out. The deposition was accomplished using the company's 300-mm rapid vertical processing tool. It represents "the first demonstration of arsenic-doped TEOS film deposition on 300-mm wafers," according to the vendor. The films are used for doping the sidewalls of deep-trench capacitor structures, a process that is incompatible with ion implantation. The TEOS/TEAsat system can process up to 100 of the larger wafers, and its delivery system uses one-tenth the doping chemicals of similar systems, according to SVG.

ASML exposes new tool

ASM Lithography says its program to develop 300-mm photolithography tools has paid off. The Dutch company will install a PAS 5500/300 PDT deep-UV system at Samsung's fab in Kihueng, South Korea. The system is capable of 300-mm aligned exposure, according to ASML. Based on modifications to the PAS 5500/300 DUV steppers, the system was developed specifically for Samsung's 300-mm development program. The tool, which incorporates a 248-nm excimer laser, is capable of printing images 0.25 µm at 35-nm overlay. The vendor developed the stepper under its Atlas 300-mm program. Production-ready models are scheduled for release beginning in 1999.

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