SOKUDO Co., Ltd. announced
today that its revolutionary SOKUDO DUO coat/develop track platform has been
running at a customer site at 300wph during lithography processing, the industry's
highest track system throughput. By incorporating an innovative dual track design,
this next-generation track system dramatically improved wafer output -- which
has traditionally been limited to approximately 200wph.
At the end of last year, SOKUDO DUO systems were installed at a production
fab of Toshiba's Semiconductor Company to conduct system performance evaluation
in a photolithography process. During Toshiba's evaluation, the system
substantially improved previous processing benchmarks, demonstrating 300wph
throughput in stand-alone coat and develop track configurations.
Improving system productivity has become increasingly critical for semiconductor
manufacturers to reduce production costs, while continuing to accelerate patterning
technology for advanced linewidths. This customer validation confirms the SOKUDO
DUO system's high throughput processing, and its capability to significantly
boost productivity performance.
SOKUDO Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan) is a joint venture company owned
by Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. and Applied Materials, Inc. SOKUDO was established
on July 3, 2006 for the development, manufacturing, sales and service of advanced
coat/develop track equipment for semiconductor production. Additional information
on SOKUDO can be found at www.sokudo.com.