Info
Info
News Article

Laser Thermal Process Ready For Market

Ultratech says that it has successfully developed what it believes to be the IC industry's first laser thermal processing (LTP) technology.

The company
believes that this will allow manufacturers to scale down to the 20nm
technology node. The new technology is the result of nearly nine years of
intensive development. LTP uses laser heating, which can be focused at
specific areas of the wafer, rather than across the wafer as happens in
furnaces or with rapid thermal processing (RTP).



Ultratech chairman and CEO Arthur W Zafiropoulo reports that this technology
is now ready for commercialisation - paving the way to thermal processing
advances to improve both the speed and density of future-generation chips.
LTP is expected to improve both device reliability and yields, increasing
productivity and enhancing return on investment (ROI). LTP is expected to
overcome current thermal diffusion limitations by greatly accelerating
anneal/activation times. The technology's predecessor, RTP, enabled the
submicron era - Ultratech expects LTP to change the landscape by becoming a
key enabler of the nanotechnology era.



Ultratech worked in close cooperation with several of the industry's leading
chipmakers in both the USA and Japan to validate the technology. LTP
technology demonstrated the ability to activate extremely shallow junctions
and contacts in just nanoseconds, thereby achieving the desired performance
characteristics while using zero thermal budget. Test results demonstrate
abrupt profile junctions with high surface concentrations down to the 20nm
technology node. Tests also indicate that the process results are relatively
insensitive to device and wafer pattern densities. This is essential to
facilitating integration of the technology into diverse manufacturing
environments.



Ultratech has already been awarded more than 20 patents with 40 more pending
on the technology.



Implementation challenges have made it a long road to LTP commercialisation.
Somit Talwar, Ultratech vice-president for laser technology, reports:

"Since
the use of lasers for the annealing process had long been attempted, but
without sufficient success, a new approach was needed. We believe that we
have amassed the world's foremost team of experts in the emerging laser
processing arena and paired them with Ultratech's projection lithography
experts to tackle this challenge. As a result of this collaboration, the
precision capabilities of projection lithography have been successfully
combined with the near-instantaneous heating properties of high-intensity
lasers, enabling state-of-the-art thermal processing performance."



Ultratech says that it has optimised the technology for volume production
and is now ready to enter the commercialisation phase of its LTP program.
The company's first commercial product based on the new LTP technology
platform will be for laser spike annealing (LSA), which will enable
ultra-shallow junction formation for multiple generations. Over the past 12
months, Ultratech has been shipping R&D tools. The company has also taken
orders for the first production tools for shipment at the end of this year,
with volume-production shipments expected to begin 2004.



AngelTech Live III: Join us on 12 April 2021!

AngelTech Live III will be broadcast on 12 April 2021, 10am BST, rebroadcast on 14 April (10am CTT) and 16 April (10am PST) and will feature online versions of the market-leading physical events: CS International and PIC International PLUS a brand new Silicon Semiconductor International Track!

Thanks to the great diversity of the semiconductor industry, we are always chasing new markets and developing a range of exciting technologies.

2021 is no different. Over the last few months interest in deep-UV LEDs has rocketed, due to its capability to disinfect and sanitise areas and combat Covid-19. We shall consider a roadmap for this device, along with technologies for boosting its output.

We shall also look at microLEDs, a display with many wonderful attributes, identifying processes for handling the mass transfer of tiny emitters that hold the key to commercialisation of this technology.

We shall also discuss electrification of transportation, underpinned by wide bandgap power electronics and supported by blue lasers that are ideal for processing copper.

Additional areas we will cover include the development of GaN ICs, to improve the reach of power electronics; the great strides that have been made with gallium oxide; and a look at new materials, such as cubic GaN and AlScN.

Having attracted 1500 delegates over the last 2 online summits, the 3rd event promises to be even bigger and better – with 3 interactive sessions over 1 day and will once again prove to be a key event across the semiconductor and photonic integrated circuits calendar.

So make sure you sign up today and discover the latest cutting edge developments across the compound semiconductor and integrated photonics value chain.

REGISTER FOR FREE

VIEW SESSIONS
GOODFELLOW Confirms Membership In The BSI UK Graphene Group
ITRI And DuPont Inaugurate Semiconductor Materials Lab
SUSS MicroTec Opens New Production Facility In Taiwan
ASML Reports €14.0 Billion Net Sales
Tower Semiconductor Announced Program Creating An Integrated-Laser-on-Silicon Photonics Foundry Process
AP&S Expands Management At Beginning Of 2021
Belgian Initiative For AI Lung Scan Analysis In Fight Against COVID-19 Goes European
Cadence Announces $5M Endowment To Advance Research
Changes In The Management Board Of 3D-Micromac AG
EV Group Establishes State-of-the-art Customer Training Facility
Can New Advances In CMOS Replace SCMOS Sensors In Biomedical Applications?
Onto Innovation Announces New Inspection Platform
Panasonic Microelectronics Web Seminar
U.S. Department Of Defense Partners With GLOBALFOUNDRIES To Manufacture Secure Chips At Fab 8
Siemens And ASE Enable Next-generation High Density Advanced Package Designs
Will Future Soldiers Be Made Of Semiconductor?
Imec Demonstrates 20nm Pitch Line/Space Resist Imaging With High-NA EUV Interference Lithography
Obducat Receives Order For Fully Automated Resist Processing Tool From A Customer In Asia
K-Space Offers A New Accessory For Their In Situ Metrology Tools
Tescan And 3D-Micromac Collaborate To Increase The Efficiency Of Failure Analysis Workflows
New Plant To Manufacture Graphene Electronics
DISCO's Completion Of New Building At Nagano Works Chino Plant
TEL Introduces Episode UL As The Next Generation Etch Platform
South Korean Point Engineering Chooses ClassOne’s Solstice S8 For Advanced Semiconductor Plating

Info
×
Search the news archive

To close this popup you can press escape or click the close icon.
Logo
×
Logo
×
Register - Step 1

You may choose to subscribe to the Silicon Semiconductor Magazine, the Silicon Semiconductor Newsletter, or both. You may also request additional information if required, before submitting your application.


Please subscribe me to:

 

You chose the industry type of "Other"

Please enter the industry that you work in:
Please enter the industry that you work in:
 
X
Info
X
Info
{taasPodcastNotification} Array
Live Event