Visit the *m•FSI booth in Hall 4A-505, Makuhari Messe, during SEMICON Japan December 6-8, 2006. m•FSI will be hosting mini-technical seminars in the booth everyday. For more information on SEMICON Japan 2006, please visit the SEMI website. (http://www.semi.org/)
During the December 7, Session 3 of the SEMI Technology Symposium (STS) on Multi-Level Interconnection & Etching, m•FSI’s Kenichi Itoi, business coordinator for FSI products, will be presenting the paper “Cryogenic Aerosol Technology for Advanced Cu/Low-k Cleaning.” For more information on this topic, click here.
*m•FSI is FSI International’s Japanese joint venture. m•FSI supports the Japan market with its own engineering, development, sales and marketing, and customer service departments.
During the SI China Wafer Cleaning Seminar in Shanghai, China on August 10, FSI International introduced its new ViPR™ technology. Available on the ZETA® G3 Spray Cleaning Platform, this innovative technology eliminates the need for ashing on most implanted photoresist stripping processes, including highly doped (1x1017 ions/cm2 ) plasma implanted (PLAD) photoresist. ViPR™ eliminates ashing damage, reduces the cost and increases the productivity of the photoresist removal step. Dr. Charles Lin, FSI Asia director of product management, presented the paper All-Wet Ash-Free PR Strip for 65nm and 45nm Technologies, which describes the ViPR™ technology.
Additionally, Dr. Jeff Butterbaugh, FSI chief technologist and ITRS (International Technology Roadmap of Semiconductors) FEP (front end processing) Committee co-chairman made the keynote presentation.. Jeff spoke on Roadmap and Challenges for Surface Preparation, presenting the argument that, beginning with 90nm, keeping to Moore’s Law requires innovative new materials and structures and that simply reducing dimensions will no longer work.
IC makers and other equipment suppliers made informative presentations as well. The seminar was attended by over 200 engineers, and everyone benefited from the exchange of information on leading-edge technologies. For more information on either of these topics, click here.
In October FSI held another successful Knowledge Services Seminar Series in Grenoble, Dresden and Tel Aviv. We’re very pleased to have brought this event to Israel for the first time.
Since the 2004 launch of FSI’s Knowledge Services Seminar Series, over 1150 IC manufacturing professionals throughout Asia, Europe and the US have participated in these very informative seminars.
The day-long sessions consisted of a morning short course, taught by Dr. Stephen P. Beaudoin, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University and by Dr. Jeff Butterbaugh, FSI Chief Technologist. The course, Fundamentals of Particle Adhesion and Removal, reviewed the state of the art in understanding the forces that control particle adhesion to surfaces in different media.
The afternoon kicked off with engaging customer and analyst keynote speeches looking at industry and technology drivers, followed by a series of presentations on surface preparation focusing on:
- Current cleaning technologies extendable to meet challenges down to 22nm
- All-wet PR strip with the ZETA® Batch Spray Cleaning System ViPR™ process
- Highly selective nitride etching and low defectivity with the MAGELLAN® Immersion Cleaning System
- Post in-line probe cleaning with the ANTARES® CyroKinetic Cleaning System.
- Wafer bonding for SOI
- Nanocrystal formation for advanced Flash Memory fabrication
- Advanced metal stripping for salicide formation
EMEA October 2006 Seminar Proceeding:
SHORT COURSE: The Fundamentals of Particle Adhesion and Removal:
- Course summary: Understanding of the effects of the particle (size, shape, roughness, composition and position), substrate (roughness and composition), and intervening medium (composition) on the resulting adhesion force. Which forces dominate the adhesion interaction under different conditions, particle deformation at equilibrium, and interactions between non-deformable particles and substrates.
FSI ANTARES® CryoKinetic Cleaning System Papers:
- ANTARES® CryoKinetic Cleaning System Product Overview
- ANTARES® System – AMD Evaluation – Vivien Schroeder and Val Parks, AMD
- Post In-line Probe Particle Removal and Yield Recovery with Cryogenic Aerosol
FSI MAGELLAN® Immersion Cleaning System Papers:
- MAGELLAN® Immersion Cleaning System Product Overview
- Molecular bonding for substrates: elaboration and circuit transfer – written by Nelly Kernevez and presented by Marek Kostrzewa, LETI.
- Silicon nanocrystals for non volatile memories: Surface preparation challenges – Joel Dufourcq, Atmel
- Achieving Ultra-Low Defectivity in Immersion Cleaning
- Precision Etching With Chemical Inject
- Advanced Silicon Nitride Wet Etching Processes and Applications
FSI ZETA® Spray Cleaning System Papers:
- ZETA® Spray Cleaning System Product Overview
- Advanced Cobalt Stripping Process for High Yield Salicide Formation – Eran Veler-Poleg, Tower Semiconductor
- Ni/NiPt Stripping and Contact Cleaning
- All-Wet Stripping of Implanted Photoresist
OTHER TOPICS:
- Damage-Free Processing of Advanced Multiple-Gate FETs
- Challenges and Solutions in Surface Preparation
- Advanced SOI and Engineered Materials – Ionut Radu, Soitec
- Novel Ultra-Fast Wet Electrochemical Etching of Silicon -- Professor Yair Ein-Eli, The Technion
- “Semiconductor Forecast - Applications Lead to Opportunities” - Joanne Itow, Semico
Hold the Date for the next FSI Knowledge Services™ Seminars in Asia:
- April 10, 2007 - Seoul
- April 13, 2007 - Singapore
- April 17, 2007 - Shanghai
- April 19, 2007 - Hsinchu
To view more information on the FSI Knowledge Services™ Seminar Series, click here.
We are very pleased with our financial results for both the fourth quarter and the year. Details of those results were reported October 17th during our year-end conference call and press release. Orders, sales and income were all up for the quarter and the year, and we finished the year with a net income of $3.2 million. We are particularly pleased with our success in Asia where year-over-year orders were up 138%.
While improved industry conditions contributed to our improved orders and financial performance in fiscal 2006, we made excellent progress on many of the strategies we established at the beginning of the year, including:
- Expand Presence at Key Accounts – Establishing a ‘Tool Of Record’ status at several new customers while expanding our TOR, for our flagship products at some of our existing accounts;
- Expand FSI Products and Applications – Deploying ‘Best Known Methods’ for several targeted process applications while expanding the overall applications capabilities of our flagship products;
- Align our Technology Roadmap with Key Customer Requirements – Increasing the frequency of technology roadmap exchanges with key customers while initiating a plan to conduct our successful ‘Knowledge Services™ Seminar’ in other regions of the world; and
- Improve Shareholder Return – Improving our quarterly financial performance in fiscal 2006 with a return to profitability in the fourth quarter.”
Immersion Cleaning
We subdivide the market into immersion, batch spray, single wafer wet, and defect reduction segments. The immersion market segment addressed by our MAGELLAN® system continues to represent more than 50% of the total wet cleaning market. From its introduction, our MAGELLAN® system has delivered unparalleled process performance and configurability. Our proprietary STG® IPA dryer and MegLens™ acoustic defuser technologies contribute to the superior particle removal and defectivity performance of this product. Our novel chemical mixing capability contributes to the batch uniformity and the nitride etch selectivity of the tool. As we have described in an accompanying article in this newsletter, we have now increased the maximum throughput of the MAGELLAN® system to up to 400 wafers per hour. This positions the MAGELLAN® product for additional opportunities with the memory producers. During the year we added another leading semi-conductor manufacturer to the MAGELLAN® system user base. This customer has placed initial HVM orders for shipment in fiscal 2007, and we anticipate adding additional customers during '07.
Batch Spray Cleaning
Our ZETA® batch spray system has been a workhorse for customers since it was introduced. We now have over 100 systems in production at customers in all regions. During the year we increased our tool of record position with several customers and expanded the applications capability of the system. For example, in the third quarter we introduced our patented new viper technology on our ZETA® G3 platform. This application, as demonstrated in production, eliminates the need for ashing on most implanted photo resist strip steps. In addition, in 2006 we expanded the user base for our ZETA® system when used for platinum nickel strip, cobalt and nickel silicide in contact clean applications. It is anticipated that a significant portion of our revenue growth in fiscal '07 will come from repeat and new customer orders for the ZETA® system running the new ViPR™ application.
Cryokinetic Aerosol Cleaning
With the continued trend to small future sizes, Gartner is forecasting a 19% CAGR 2005 to 2011 for cryokinetic cleaning. FSI's ANTARES® System addresses this segment of the market, and we have more than ten device manufacturers using our technology in production. Our cryokinetic cleaning technology is used extensively for BEOL copper cleaning applications but has also demonstrated utility for several FEOL applications. ANTARES® system effectively removes fall-on type defects from airborne particles and from deposition, etch, and CMP processes. Our novel, patented cryokinetic aerosol technology cleans the wafer without inducing defects such as added particles, water marks, streaks, or surface charging that are common with alternative particle removal technologies. We are anticipating an increase in unit sales for this product in fiscal '07 as device manufacturers ramp their 65 nanometer production and continue the qualification of products for 45 nanometer applications.
Single Wafer Wet Cleaning
Finally, the single wafer wet segment, representing nearly 30% of the total wet clean market, is the fastest growing segment. We shipped our first system, a product that has been under development the past 18 months during the fourth quarter. This product is targeted for advanced single wafer wet applications in both the FEOL and BEOL manufacturing process flow. We do not expect any significant revenue from this product until next year as we focus on continuing to develop and demonstrate applications. However, the introduction of this product allows us to offer our customers solutions for nearly all surface conditioning process steps.
Conclusion
In summary, we are pleased with our 2006 performance and will strive to continue to improve on that performance next year. We will measure our performance based upon winning additional tool-of-record status with the top spenders and by our success in deploying best-known methods for use on our installed base of flagship products. Once again our performance is dependent on how well we execute each and every day. We're grateful for the confidence our customers have shown in 2006, and are pleased with our employees commitment to their success. We're confident that we can leverage our '06 successes into improved performance in '07.