EV GROUP and Toppan Photomask join forces

EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, and Toppan Photomask Co. Ltd., the world’s premier photomask provider, today announced that they have entered into an agreement to jointly market nanoimprint lithography (NIL) as an enabling high-volume manufacturing (HVM) process for the photonics industry.

The collaboration, which combines the strengths of the leading supplier and pioneer of NIL systems and the leading supplier of photomasks to the semiconductor market, aims to establish NIL as an industry standard production process for photonics manufacturing, and accelerate its implementation in HVM to support a wide variety of applications. These applications include augmented/mixed/virtual reality headsets, smartphone and automotive sensors, as well as medical imaging systems.

Process engineers at EV Group’s NILPhotonics® Competence Center examine a 200-mm wafer with metalenses replicated using a master manufactured by Toppan Photomask and a nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process from EVG. Source: EV Group.

As part of this non-exclusive collaboration, EVG and Toppan Photomask will pool their knowledge, expertise and services to provide NIL development kits utilizing master templates from Toppan Photomask and equipment and process development services provided by EVG to further promote NIL technology and its possibilities for industrial-scale implementation. In addition, EVG will offer NIL technology and product demonstrations to interested companies at EVG’s NILPhotonics® Competence Center at its headquarters in Austria. Furthermore, each company will designate the other as a recommended supply chain partner to companies interested in leveraging NIL to support their production needs.

“Toppan Photomask is very excited to enter into a collaboration with EVG”, said Chan-Uk Jeon, chief technology officer of Toppan Photomask Co., Ltd. “EVG’s NIL tooling and processing capabilities are world class and will enable cost-effective growth in photonics and other new technologies that are now adapting to NIL technology. Toppan Photomask sees a bright future as NIL grows into another successful lithography solution, enabled by both companies’ established strengths.”