Semiconductor equipment supplier Tegal
Corporation and CIMAC, a leading software service solutions provider, announced
today that they have entered into a partnership to create enhanced operating
systems and user interfaces for Tegal AMS PVD thin film deposition systems.
The Tegal AMS PVD systems provide industry-leading performance for the reactive
sputtering of aluminum nitride (AlN) films used to fabricate piezoelectric devices
such as BAW and FBAR filters for the cell phone handset market. The AMS platform
is one of Tegal's most recent product offerings for depositing and etching materials
vital to MEMS device development and commercial manufacturing. CIMAC is providing
software development for the tool operating system, the GUI user interface,
and SECS/GEM communications.
Cluster Tool Enhancements
CIMAC has also been developing software enhancements for Tegal’s current
generation Endeavor line of PVD cluster tools. These enhancements include the
development and deployment of improved SECS/GEM communications, and also software
upgrades for managing the tool efficiency and throughput benefits created when
a second vacuum load lock is added to the system.
“Our partnership with CIMAC has been both cost-effective and efficient,”
commented Jim Apffel, engineering director at Tegal. “We’ve been
able to put our efforts toward our core competencies of PVD cluster tools and
let CIMAC enhance the product lines with their expertise in software.”
“This is a perfect example of our value added service,” commented
Yezala Abayneh, President & CEO of CIMAC. “For over 10 years we have
been partnering with equipment suppliers to enhance the productivity of their
current generation tools and to bring to market new tools with state-of-the
art software capabilities.”