Oct 26 2010
Ultratech, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK), a leading supplier of lithography and laser-processing systems used to manufacture semiconductor devices and high-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs), today announced that a large foundry in Asia has placed a significant multi-system, follow-on order for its laser spike anneal (LSA) tools.
Ultratech's LSA100A systems will be used to support the foundry's 45-nm production ramp. Built on Ultratech's customizable Unity Platform™, the LSA100A system provides considerable cost-of-ownership (CoO) advantages and operational flexibility to process various product types without negatively impacting yield. Ultratech plans to begin delivery of the systems in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Ultratech has LSA systems at all the major logic foundries and, as a result, has become the foundries' tool of choice for advanced annealing applications. The continued adoption of Ultratech's LSA technology is driven by demand for leading-edge consumer devices, such as smartphones, PCs and tablets. Ultratech expects this trend to continue as today's consumer devices become increasingly more feature rich within shrinking form factors, and the need to reduce leakage and extend battery life for mobile devices becomes ever-more critical.
"Based on the success of its existing LSA systems, this top-tier customer placed a follow-on order for multiple LSA100A tools to support its 45-nm production ramp," stated Jeff Hebb, Ph.D., vice president of laser product marketing at Ultratech. "Foundries require a cost-effective solution that has the flexibility to process different product layouts without negatively affecting yield. For advanced CMOS manufacturing, the LSA100A delivers improved device performance and lower leakage along with superior within-die uniformity, layout-independent process results, and closed-loop wafer temperature control. As a result, our foundry customers have the capability to seamlessly transfer their LSA processes from one product layout to the next. For the foundry environment where there are many products, this operational flexibility is critical. We greatly value this foundry customer and will continue to develop leading-edge, low-risk solutions for our global customers' advanced annealing requirements."
Source: http://www.ultratech.com/