EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced it has received an order from the University of Tokyo for its EVG301 megasonic wafer cleaning system for compound semiconductor research. Installed at the university’s Takagi & Takenaka Laboratory, the new tool is focused on preparing a particle-free wafer surface for bonding III-V materials, such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and indium gallium arsenide, (GaAs, InP, and InGaAs), to silicon wafers. The system augments the laboratory’s research focused on developing novel semiconductor transistors incorporating compound semiconductor materials for large-scale integrated (LSI) devices to overcome limitations introduced with scaling beyond the 22-nm node using traditional silicon.
“The miniaturization of semiconductor devices is reaching its physical limitations, and traditional scaling in line with Moore’s law is not sufficient enough to address future demands for higher performing LSI devices,” noted Dr. Masafumi Yokoyama, Researcher at the Takagi & Takenaka Laboratory with the University of Tokyo. “As such, we have been evaluating new materials, such as III-V compounds, with silicon in effort to create new research breakthroughs that will address device performance demands in the post-scaling era. In support of our efforts, we adopted EV Group’s megasonic wafer cleaner, the EVG301, to help us achieve superior quality wafer bonds that are void-free.”
Commenting on today’s announcement, Yuichi Otsuka, Representative Director of EV Group Japan K.K., said, “We are pleased for this opportunity to support the University of Tokyo’s leading-edge LSI device research. The Takagi & Takenaka Laboratory is invested in a vital research area given the limitations the semiconductor industry faces with traditional scaling using silicon alone. We have always been a significant supporter of R&D work, which EV Group was founded upon, and continue to provide enabling technologies to advance innovation.”
To continue to meet consumer demands for lower power consuming, higher performing, and higher functioning chips, the semiconductor industry is evaluating the benefits of incorporating new materials with silicon—beyond pure silicon-based wafers. This shift is paving the way for future market growth of compound semiconductors, as well as more efficient manufacturing technologies to achieve maximum end-device performance. For example, MOCVD processes, where a thin film of II-VI or III-V material is deposited by heteroepitaxial growth, can result in inconsistent wafer formation. This comprises the integrity of the wafer surface and ultimately impacts end-device performance. Wafer bonding is a promising solution to overcoming this problem. Essential to the wafer bonding integrity is the need for a particle-free bonding surface. Wafer cleaning is therefore critical to ensuring the wafer surface is free of any voids created by particles that can negatively impact the quality of the wafer bond and the overall wafer uniformity.