Tegal Corporation, (Nasdaq:
TGAL) an innovator of specialized production solutions for the fabrication
of advanced MEMS, power ICs and optoelectronic devices, today announced it received
an order for a Tegal DRIE 200 system equipped with the ProNova third-generation
high-density Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) reactor. This commercial order
for the Tegal ProNova reactor is from a first-time Tegal customer in the EU,
who will use the Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) tool to perform innovative
research for high-performance microelectronics on 200mm wafers.
In a competitive evaluation, the new ProNova ICP source demonstrated higher
etch rates, improved etch depth uniformity, better etch tilt angle uniformity,
and higher yields than did standard ICP sources for DRIE applications. These
significant advantages over standard ICP sources were particularly evident on
larger diameter wafers, in this case 200mm wafers, with the end results being
wider process windows and better tool productivity, both items being critical
to creating rapid cycles of learning and performing efficient development and
research.
“When we began our DRIE business in September 2008 we said we would work
to demonstrate and sell production-worthy silicon DRIE tools for MEMS applications
to new customers and to existing Tegal customers, and we said we would work
together with our customers to develop the advanced DRIE processes needed for
new MEMS and 3D IC applications,” said Thomas Mika, Tegal’s President
and CEO. “The commercial launch of the ProNova ICP source today, together
with this order for a Tegal DRIE 200 system equipped with a ProNova reactor,
confirms that Tegal offers customers the best combination of leading-edge technology,
customer support, and production-proven systems for 200mm MEMS and 3D IC applications.”
The ProNova ICP source is available on Tegal 110, 200, 3200, and 4200 DRIE
Wafer Processing Systems. ProNova is also compatible as a retrofit with Tegal
and AMMS DRIE systems already in the field, and ProNova supports SHARP &ndash
Tegal’s Super High Aspect Ratio Process, achieving etched feature aspect
ratios of > 100:1 in production environments.
In support of the ProNova launch, Tegal is exhibiting at Micromachine/MEMS
2009, Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan from Wednesday 29 July 2009 through Friday
31 July 2009. Please look for Tegal and ProNova at the Canon Marketing Japan
Booth, East Hall, Booth H-05.