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GaSonics tops customer poll

GaSonics International topped VLSI Research's list of the best dry processing equipment suppliers in the research firm's 1997 customer satisfaction survey. The San Jose—based vendor ranked first in seven of eight categories. A total of seven suppliers were ranked by product performance, uptime, quality of results, process support, software support, technical leadership, service after sales, and overall commitment. GaSonics ranked second only in software support. It was the only company to improve its overall customer satisfaction rating from the previous year.

The improvement was attributed to the vendor's emphasis on listening to customer feedback and correcting problems. VLSI noted, however, that the seven suppliers on the list failed to meet customer expectations in all rating categories except uptime. Manufacturers of dry etch tools received their highest ratings in the quality of results category, while manufacturers of dry strippers ranked highest in the uptime category.

The vendors, in order of ranking, are GaSonics, Fusion Semiconductor, Hitachi, Applied Materials, Lam Research, Tokyo Electron Ltd., and Tegal. Applied, Lam, and TEL finished in a virtual dead heat.

Realtime runs out of time

Realtime Performance, a supplier of automation and control software based in Sunnyvale, CA, has decided to quit the semiconductor market. Although its software is used with more than 10,000 pieces of equipment, the company says a "crippling inertia" within the industry has prevented independent software suppliers from growing. RPI plans to make its software products and technology available on a royalty-free basis. Interested parties will have the option of buying the complete source code "at bargain prices," the company says. Products include a program that provides a complete set of services for building an equipment-related control, monitoring, and automation system and off-the-shelf SEMI-standard programs for facilitating communication between equipment and factory control and information systems. Information: 408/245-6537.

IMEC, Mattson team up

A project to develop tools capable of producing chips with 0.18- and 0.13-µm linewidths has been launched by Mattson Technology and the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) in Leuven, Belgium. The Belgian R&D center selected Mattson's dual-chamber Aspen ICP/ICPsm strip system with the goal of refining dry strip processes for 0.18-µm device technology and below. IMEC plans to install the tool at its research facility. The system combines a standard ICP and selectable-mode ICP process chamber in one platform.

The partners elected to focus on 0.18-µm processes because of the semiconductor industry's delay in making the transition to the use of 300-mm wafers. IMEC chose the Mattson system because "it met our specific process criteria, including electrical test results for resist and polymer removal in the high-dose implant, poly, and via strip applications," says Serge Vanhaelemeersch, IMEC manager of dry etch development. The design of the platform and chamber minimizes the possibility of plasma-induced damage by permitting the use of "soft" plasma conditions for process control, according to the partners.

IEST wants your paper

The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology is soliciting technical papers on a range of topics for its 45th annual technical meeting. The conference is slated for May 2—7, 1999, in Ontario, CA. Topics include high-purity gases and chemicals, cleaning, clean process technology, environmentally friendly IC manufacturing, contamination control, and statistical aspects of contamination control. Abstracts of no more than 300 words must be submitted by September 1, 1998. Final versions of accepted papers are due by January 1, 1999. Papers will be published in the 1999 ATM Proceedings. The address for abstracts is IEST, 940 E. Northwest Hwy., Mount Prospect, IL 60056. Information: 847/255-1561; fax, 847/255-1699; E-mail, iest@iest.org.

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