EV Group (EVG), a leading
supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology
and semiconductor markets, today announced it has shipped its 100th nanoimprint
lithography (NIL) system. The milestone shipment is significant not only for
EVG -- which holds an approximate 30-percent share of market with the most NIL
systems in the field -- but also for the industry overall, as it serves to highlight
the significant growth of the global NIL installed base, which has more than
doubled over the past four years.
"Nanoimprint lithography is an enabling technology for optical and microfluidic
applications," noted Paul Lindner, executive technology director for EV
Group. "With EVG's firm commitment to NIL development and commercialization,
together with our industry-leading NIL products, including our EVG770 fully-automated
NIL Stepper and EVG750 fully-automated Hot Embossing systems, we remain well
positioned to benefit as these and other markets such as chemical and biosensor
move into high-volume production."
EVG's 100th NIL system shipment further underscores the ongoing drive to broaden
adoption of NIL processes. As a leading proponent of this effort, EVG founded
the NILCOM Consortium in 2004. The mission of the consortium, whose dozen members
span equipment, materials, processes and research, is to establish a high-volume
NIL manufacturing platform that can be commercially deployed within a wide range
of technology arenas, including nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, data storage
and life sciences.
Recent successes in these areas have included NIL processes being used commercially
in the optics market for CMOS image sensors, optical gratings and LEDs as well
as commitment from the hard disk drive (HDD) market to employ NIL for their
roadmaps in discrete track recording (DTR) and bit pattern media (BPM). These
approaches are expected to be implemented in future generations of HDD products
to enable data storage densities in excess of 10^12 bits/in^2.
EVG will present its new working stamp technology for UV-based imprint lithography
applications at the 7th annual International Conference on Nanoimprint and Nanoprint
Technology (NNT), which will be held October 13-15, 2008 at the Kyoto International
Conference Center in Kyoto, Japan.