SAN FRANCISCO -- During the Semicon West trade show here today, Applied Materials Inc. announced a slew of products, including the first in a family of tools that will pave the way into what it calls the "nano-chip" era.
The new products from Applied will enable the development of advanced chips with design rules of 100-nm (0.10-micron) and below. Among the first products for the "nano-chip" era includes new process module technologies and an atomic layer deposition (ATD) chamber for its chemical vapor deposition (CVD) equipment.
The new products "will significantly advance the future of chipmaking," said James C. Morgan, chairman and chief executive of Applied Materials of Santa Clara, Calif.
At Semicon, the company expanded upon its "process module" strategy. The "process module" approach segments the semiconductor manufacturing process into separate "building blocks." Each of these "blocks" consists of several individual systems that work together as a single unit.
At present, Applied is offering "process module" at the 130-nm node and above. Now, it will develop modules that will enable the development of next-generation devices at the 100-nm node and below.
These new modules, to be rolled out over time, will include products for building copper wiring structures, low (kappa) deposition/etch, gate structures, ultra-shallow junctions, shallow trench isolation structures, pre-metal dielectric layers and interlayer dielectric layers.
Another product that will pave the way into the "nano-chip" era is ALD. At Semicon, Applied introduce its first ALD chamber for its CVD systems, which is used to deposit thin, conformal high-purity films on the wafer.
The proprietary ALD chamber can deposit a wide range of film types--such as both metal and dielectric technologies--at the 100-nm node. Applied's first applications of the ALD technology include an ALD tungsten nucleation layer for advanced contact applications, and an ALD titanium nitride (TiN) film than can be used either as a liner or as an electrode on tantalum pentoxide-based capacitors.
Applied also rolled out a slew of other products and technologies. Among the key products include the following announcements:
*Etec Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Applied, announced the ALTA 4000, a cost-effective mask writing tool for 130-nm mask production. The ALTA 4000 features new 257-nm deep-ultraviolet technology bassed on Etec's multi-beam raster scanned laser architecture.
*Applied claims to revolutionized etch technology by rolling out the industry's first patterning system. Dubbed Transforma, the product combines its Silicon Etch DPS II system and its optical CD (critical dimension) metrology tool.
*The company rolled out the industry's first tungsten deposition system for 300-mm wafer processing. Dubbed Sprint Plus, the system is designed for the 100-nm node.
