Section: CAPITAL EQUIPMENT

INTERNATIONAL SEMATECH announced it has made a significant advance in the development of low-k dielectric film and copper IC technology. The Austin-based nonprofit research consortium last week said it has completed the first phase of research of dielectric films for sub-180 nanometer copper devices. International Sematech successfully fabricated single-level copper damascene test structures with a number of different low-k dielectric materials with constants in the range of 3.0 down to 2.1. The research is designed to identify the issues and challenges companies will need to overcome to develop functioning copper-based devices, the consortium said. Companies donating materials or tools to the research include Applied Materials, Asahi Chemical, Dow Chemical, Dow Corning, Hitachi Chemical, Honeywell Electronic Materials, JSR, Novellus, Battelle PNNL, Schumacher, Tokyo Electron Ltd., LAM Research, Eaton SEO, Semitool and IPEC/Westech.

Taiwan Fab Buys Tegal Diode Etch Tools

TEGAL CORP., PETALUMA, Calif., soon will ship $800,000 worth of etch tools to a Taiwanese IC manufacturer. The company last week announced it received a follow-up order for multiple Tegal 903 diode etch tools from Winbond Electronics Corp. Tegal expects to ship the order in the second quarter. Winbond is adding the diode etch tools as part of a capacity expansion program at its Hsinchu, Taiwan fab. The company will use the tools to produce memory chips, data communication ICs, microcontrollers, multimedia ICs and other semiconductors. The Tegal 903 is a diode plasma etch tool designed around a transport system that can accommodate 75mm to 150mm round silicon and gallium aresenide substrates. The transport can also be configured to accommodate rectangular substrates from 100mm to 125mm on a side.

Two Malaysian Fabs Order Asyst Automation Devices

ASYST TECHNOLOGIES INC., Fremont, Calif., is reaping the benefits of recovering Asian markets. The company last week said it received multimillion-dollar orders from Silterra Malaysia Sd. Bhdn. and 1st Silicon Malaysia Sd. Bhdn. for its fab-wide automation devices. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Silterra's order includes Asyst's SMIF-LPT line of products, 200mm SMIF-Pods, mini-environments, SMART-Tags, wafer sorters and a FluoroTrac auto-ID system, Asyst said. Silterra intends initially to use these products in the production of 0.25- and 0.18-micron CMOS digital and mixed signal processors. The devices will be installed at Silterra's manufacturing facility in Kulim, Malaysia, in July, Asyst said.

Sheldahl Introduces High-Frequency Laminates

SHELDAHL INC., NORTHFIELD, Minn., recently introduced a new line of proprietary, high-frequency laminates for semirigid or flexible circuits used in wireless communications. The new product line, called ComClad, marks Sheldahl's entry into the high-growth wireless market. The new ComClad material technology is designed for the microwave and radio-frequency segments of the wireless market, which include base stations, satellite communications, personal communications systems' antennas, two-way pagers, wireless local area networks, automotive collision avoidance radar, direct broadcast satellite antennas, and antennas for various other applications. ComClad is available in prototype and in production quantities and can be provided in industry-standard panel sizes with a variety of copper foils and dielectric film of varying thickness. The new technology is compatible with standard panel circuit board processing equipment, the company said.

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By Jeff Chappell