SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwire - February 24, 2009) - The international EMC-3D semiconductor
equipment and materials consortium today announced that Applied Materials,
Inc. (
NASDAQ:
AMAT) has joined the organization. As the industry's leading
provider of nanomanufacturing technology solutions, Applied offers critical
process and integration expertise in the fields of etching, dielectric and
metal deposition, chemical-mechanical polishing, metrology, and inspection.
These capabilities will be utilized for developing a cost-effective and
manufacturable through-silicon via (TSV) process flow for 3D* chip stacking
and MEMS* integration.
Through-silicon via technology is a new method of combining integrated
circuits in a vertical stack to enable high functionality and low power
consumption in a small footprint. While employing many standard chip
processes, TSVs present several new technical challenges for
production-worthy manufacturing: maintaining the structural and edge
integrity of thin wafers, stress and thermal profile control, via
processing and device reliability.
"Applied Materials sees the TSV approach as an important enabling
technology for tomorrow's sophisticated image sensors, memory and
mixed-signal applications," said Hans Stork, group vice president and CTO
of Applied's Silicon Systems Group. "Joining forces with other leading
equipment and materials suppliers is an effective way to qualify contiguous
processes, drive down the cost and enable the widespread adoption of TSV
technology. By deploying fabrication equipment, materials and process
technology from the EMC-3D member companies, our customers can take
advantage of a complete, validated process flow, greatly reducing their own
development time and initial investment."
"We're very pleased to bring Applied Materials into this consortium and
look forward to a productive relationship in developing cost-effective TSV
solutions for chip stacking applications," said Paul Siblerud, EMC-3D
chairman and vice president of marketing at Semitool (
NASDAQ:
SMTL).
"EMC-3D is currently at the mid-point of a three-year objective to bring
cost-effective TSV to market. Each member is addressing the technical
integration challenges of TSV technology for chip stacking and advanced
MEMS/sensors packaging."
The original goal of the consortium was to create a robust integrated
process flow at a cost of less than $200USD per wafer. That goal has
expanded to include both a via-first (iTSV™) and via-last (pTSV™)
process flow at a total cost of ownership (CoO) of under $150USD.
About Applied Materials
Applied Materials, Inc. (
NASDAQ:
AMAT) is the global leader in
Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of
innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of
semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells,
flexible electronics and energy efficient glass. At Applied Materials, we
apply Nanomanufacturing Technology to improve the way people live. Learn
more at
www.appliedmaterials.com.
About EMC-3D
EMC-3D (Semiconductor 3D Equipment and Materials Consortium) was created in
September 2006 to develop and market wafer level 3D chip stacking
technology by demonstrating a cost-effective, manufacturable, stackable TSV
interconnection process for IC and MEMS/Sensor packaging.
www.EMC3D.org
*3D: three dimensional; MEMS: microelectromechanical systems
Contacts for EMC-3D Members include:
Equipment Members:
Applied Materials Inc., California USA; (
NASDAQ:
AMAT) Sesh Ramaswami, Sr.
Director Strategy; Silicon Systems Group
Technology: etching, dielectric and metal deposition, chemical-mechanical
polishing, metrology, and inspection
Datacon Technology GmbH, Austria; Christoph Scheiring, Director Product
Marketing
Technology: Precision Diebonding & Sorting
EV Group, Austria; Thorsten Matthias, Director of Technology North America
Technology: bonding, thin wafer handling, mask alignment lithography,
conformal coat and develop
SEMITOOL Inc, USA; (
NASDAQ:
SMTL), Rozalia Beica, Director TSV business
development
Technology: electroplating, metal/barrier etch, photoresist strip, wafer
cleaning and thinning
Isonics Corp, USA; (
OTCBB:
ISON) Fred Schiele, V.P. & General Manager
Technology: wafer service (reclaim and test wafers, wafer thinning, and
thick-film SOI wafers)
Materials Members:
AZ Electronic Materials, USA; Aldo Orsi, Global Product Manager
Technology: positive and negative acting photoresists
Enthone (Cookson Electronics), USA; Yun Zhang, Director, Research and
Development
Technology: chemistry for electroplating and metal etch
Rohm and Haas, USA; Bob Forman, Advanced Packaging Business Manager
Technology: chemistry for lithography, plating, etching, dielectric
formation, and bonding
Brewer Science, Inc., USA; Mark Privett, Product Manager, Bonding Materials
Technology: Anti-reflective coatings, specialty materials for compound
semiconductor, optoelectronics, and MEMS applications. Spin coat, bake and
develop processing equipment, planarization systems
Technology Members:
CEA-LETI, Grenoble France; Mark Scannell, Microelectronics Program Manager
Fraunhofer IZM, Germany; Jürgen Wolf, Group and Project Manager
NXP, Dr. Fred Roozeboom, Technical Advisor
KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), Korea; Dr.
Kyung-Wook Paik, Professor
SAIT (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology), Korea; Dr. Yoon-Chul Sohn,
Researcher
TAMU (Texas A&M University), USA; Dr. Manuel Soriaga, Professor
Contact Information: Contacts:
EMC-3D
Rozalia Beica
Program Manager EMC-3D
406.752.2107
Applied Materials Inc.
Betty Newboe
(editorial/media) 408.563.0647
Michael Sullivan
(financial community) 408.986.7977