Rudolph Lithography System Gains Traction for Advanced Packaging Applications
Rudolph Technologies, Inc has announced that a major outsourced assembly and test (OSAT) manufacturer has selected the JetStep Advanced Packaging Lithography System for evaluation. The tool, which ships this week, will be used to develop copper (Cu) pillar bumping and through silicon via (TSV) processes used in the development of next-generation flip chip technology.
"Copper pillar bumping and TSV have emerged as leading interconnect technologies for advanced packaging, and Rudolph is committed to partnering with customers to develop these next-generation processes. The JetStep system has demonstrated excellent performance on copper pillar and TSV applications in our applications lab, and we look forward to replicating this performance using production wafers at the customer site," stated Rich Rogoff, vice president and general manager of Rudolph's Lithography Systems Group. "We expect to see significant productivity and process improvement over this customer's existing lithography systems."
"We are pleased to ship the JetStep system to a third customer," adds Mike Plisinski, executive vice president and chief operating officer. "This agreement demonstrates not only an increasing emphasis in the back-end on productivity and cost-of-ownership, but also the growing adoption of the JetStep system for advanced packaging lithography."
The JetStep Advanced Packaging Lithography Systems have been specifically designed to meet the challenges of newly-developed processes now emerging in back-end manufacturing. The JetStep W Series is intended for use with wafers or other round substrates. The JetStep S Series is for square or rectangular substrates. Both systems feature a 2X reduction stepper with a large field of view (52mm x 66mm) to improve exposure efficiency and throughput. The JetStep system is unique in its ability to handle a wide range of substrates, including glass interposers, square or rectangular substrates up to 720mm by 600mm, and standard or reconstituted wafers from 300mm to next-generation 450mm diameters; and to accommodate the warped substrates that frequently occur in these processes. An onboard, automated reticle library, holding up to 30 reticles, and adjustable field apertures combine to increase throughput and flexibility. These and other purpose-designed features, such as the large automatic magnification compensation range, provide significant benefits in advanced package applications that are unavailable from legacy lithography tools initially designed for front-end, wafer-based processes.
