Aug 18 2008
Micronic Laser Systems AB, today received an order for a Sigma7500 system from an Asian chipmaker. The system is scheduled for delivery during the current year.
"The semiconductor industry is increasing its efforts to reduce the cost of volume chip production, and Sigma has proven to be an effective solution for reducing photomask costs," said Carl-Johan Blomberg, Micronic CFO. "We are very pleased to see that this customer has chosen Sigma following an extensive evaluation, and look forward to a continued collaboration as the system is put into production."
The Sigma series covers an application space including both binary photomasks and phase shifting masks (PSM) at the 90nm, 65nm and 45nm technology nodes. In addition to meeting the stringent requirements for resolution and accuracy at these advanced technology nodes, the laser-based Sigma series provides productivity that is substantially higher than that of e-beam pattern generators. This lowers photomask manufacturing costs and turn-around time, thereby reducing the cost and time-to-market for ICs.
The high resolution and productivity are achieved with the system's 248 nm excimer laser and Micronic's proprietary spatial light modulator (SLM) technology. A massively parallel bitmap output results in short write times - only two to three hours for advanced masks - that are independent of the design density and optical proximity correction (OPC).