Alliances
Additionally, the agreement will include development and testing of power management, RF and protocol software that will be made available as system solutions to TI's worldwide customer base. NTT DoCoMo has more than 4mn subscribers in the growing Japanese 3G service market.
The OMAP 2 architecture has been developed to deliver consumer electronics-quality to the wireless industry, such as digital TV, hi-fi music with 3D effects, up to DVD-quality video, high-end gaming console functionality, colour display and digital cameras with up to 6Mpixels. TI will also develop a series of UMTS chipsets for the general market based on this solution with a roadmap encompassing multi-mode EDGE and higher data rate HSDPA offerings. The complete system solution will include RF and power management devices.
AIXTRON is to take part in a project targeting the improvement of LED technology for solid state lighting. The three-year project will be conducted by the Laboratory of Semiconductor Optics, Stepanov Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and is funded by the International Science & Technology Center in Russia (ISTC).
The target of this new project is to improve LED performance and explore silicon as a low cost alternative for substrates. Conventionally, more expensive sapphire or silicon carbide substrates are used. Using silicon would drastically reduce LED production costs. The Electromagnetic Theory department (ITHE) of the RWTH university in Aachen, Germany, is also participating.
ATMI has formed a strategic partnership with SemEquip to exclusively market and sell their ClusterBoron ion implant materials. ATMI and SemEquip will co-develop new delivery systems for ClusterBoron materials targeted to chip generations at and below 65nm. The strategic partnership includes an equity investment by ATMI in SemEquip's recently completed $8.3mn round of venture financing.
Brian Cohen, SemEquip CEO, comments: "Our ClusterIon source performance is up to ten times more productive for advanced processes than conventional ion sources at 90nm production. Collaborating with ATMI will help to speed market penetration and the development of the materials supply chain. We plan to demonstrate wafer capability this fall, with commercial materials and delivery systems becoming available in 2005."
Cluster ions include many dopant atoms per molecule. Using cluster ions, ultra shallow junctions can be created at higher implant energies, the net effect of which is restoring or improving the productivity of the ion implanter. Normal low-energy implant suffers from the "space charge" effect that reduces the maximum current obtainable. A high current, low energy beam blows apart due to the repulsive electrostatic forces between the ions. SemEquip is a research and development company developing cluster beam ion implantation sources and delivery systems. SemEquip holds patents or has patents pending on most of its products.
BOC Edwards' Kachina chamber component cleaning and management services unit has entered into a licensing agreement with Novellus to manufacture 300 mm INOVA XT disposable shield sets and to distribute them directly to end-user customers. The 300mm disposable shield is a key component of the physical vapour deposition (PVD) chamber process kit enabling the deposition of Cu and Ta-based films. The new aluminium shield set design is part of an initiative to reduce the cost of ownership of Novellus' INOVA PVD product line.
The INOVA XT shields are available from BOC Edwards for either tantalum or copper applications, and can be ordered as piece parts or as an entire shield set. BOC Edwards also provides full kit management services, delivering the entire 300mm chamber kit for the INOVA XT. As part of this service, BOC Edwards can also manage the replacement and - for non-disposable parts - the recycling of parts on the kit, ensuring the availability of kits during scheduled tool maintenance.
