Tegal Corporation, (NASDAQ:TGAL) an innovator of specialized production solutions for the fabrication of advanced MEMS, power ICs and optoelectronic devices, today announced it has received an order from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems in Duisburg, Germany for a Tegal 200 SE™ DRIE system equipped with the new Tegal ProNova2™ reactor.
The Tegal 200 SE DRIE system will be shipped and installed at the customer’s site in early CY2011, and will support Fraunhofer IMS’ mission to develop and produce microelectronic system solutions by combining mixed-signal ICs and integrated microsystems (MEMS) devices built using a state-of-the-art equipment set and “more than Moore” thinking.
The Tegal 200 SE silicon DRIE system order from this first-time Tegal DRIE customer is the result of a thorough competitive evaluation Fraunhofer IMS performed on a broad range of silicon DRIE tools and tool suppliers.
“The capabilities of the Tegal 200 SE are convincing for us due to the Tegal system’s demonstrated high deep silicon etch performance and high process flexibility, including oxide and isotropic silicon etch. We believe that this equipment excellently meets our needs for advanced MEMS development,” said Dr. Andreas Goehlich from the Fraunhofer IMS.
“Fraunhofer IMS is well-known for technological leadership in integrated microsystems, and we are very pleased to have received this important silicon DRIE tool order,” said Jim Apffel, DRIE Product Manager at Tegal Corporation. “We believe that our ProNova2 DRIE process module is the most advanced silicon DRIE process module on the market today for 200mm applications. As this order shows, we have been able to meet our customer’s demanding technical requirements for silicon DRIE performance, while providing excellent value along the way.”
The Tegal 200 SE™ is the best-adapted DRIE solution for 3D-IC and MEMS volume manufacturing today. The tool is designed to achieve high throughput with low Cost of Ownership in production applications, thanks to the combination of extended time between cleaning, minimal wafer edge exclusion, high silicon etch rates, excellent process stability and highly uniform etching.
The Tegal ProNova2™ reactor is targeted for fast-growing 200-mm MEMS and 3D-IC applications. It was built to out-perform the etch rates of comparative tools and to deliver industry-leading DRIE productivity and yield benefits. In addition to demonstrating sustained high etch rates, the new ProNova2™ reactor offers a three-fold improvement in ion uniformity over standard ICP sources. For some applications, the higher ion uniformity enables a 40-plus percent improvement in etch selectivity.
Tegal silicon DRIE tools are presently employed in numerous research and development laboratories throughout the world, engaging in both commercial and academic research programs, and are also found in MEMS foundries and other dedicated commercial High Volume Manufacturing lines world-wide.
Source: http://www.tegal.com/