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FSI International (ticker:
FSII, exchange: NASDAQ) News Release - 5/11/04
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FSI Joins Damascus™ Alliance to Integrate
Cleaning into the Copper Dual Damascene Process
MINNEAPOLIS (May 11, 2004) -- FSI International, Inc. (Nasdaq:
FSII) today announced that the company has signed a cooperative
agreement with Novellus Systems, Inc. to join the Damascus Alliance™,
a group of semiconductor equipment companies that collaborate
on copper dual damascene process integration for advanced device
manufacturing. FSI will install their fully automated 300-mm
ZETA® Spray Cleaning System in the Novellus Customer Integration
Center (CIC) in July. FSI’s expertise in the areas of
post via etch, post trench etch, post barrier etch cleaning
and other surface conditioning processes for use in copper and
low k dual damascene processing compliments the expertise of
other Alliance members.
“With their extensive years of experience in providing surface
preparation technology to the semiconductor industry, FSI is
the ideal wafer cleaning company to join the Damascus Alliance,” said
David Williams, manager of Novellus’ Customer Integration
Center. “In addition to FSI’s well-established history
within the industry, the selection of the FSI ZETA System brings
to the CIC a wealth of 300-mm production experience, flexibility
and extendable cleaning technology, all important requirements
for our initiatives.”
The Damascus Alliance, which includes industry leaders such
as Lam Research Corporation, FEI and Keithley, was formed in
1998 to help reduce development time for customers while accelerating
the adoption of new technology. The concept of an open Alliance
offers customers solutions that bring best of breed performance
and cost to their differentiated products.
Implementing FSI’s ZETA system spray technology is very
cost effective due to its optimized throughput and cycle time
benefits housed in a small footprint. In addition, the system’s
flexible proprietary chemical blending and delivery technology
will allow rapid implementation of processes for future technologies.
“FSI is excited to partner with other industry leaders in the
Damascus Alliance and we are making this critical investment
to ultimately benefit our customers,” said Don Mitchell,
FSI chairman and CEO. “We have made significant advancements
in our own laboratories working on processes for 90nm technology
and beyond. By placing the ZETA system technology in the Novellus
CIC, we can more quickly and effectively optimize advanced cleaning
processes as part of a fully integrated copper dual damascene
flow. Addressing IC makers’ challenges, through the rapid
application of R&D to the manufacturing arena, are a primary
focus of FSI.”
The Novellus Customer Integration Center is a 30,000 square foot, fully functional
fab environment located within the company’s San Jose, Calif. headquarters.
Created in response to the unprecedented materials changes occurring in
the semiconductor manufacturing industry, the Customer Integration Center
provides the opportunity for customers to resolve copper and low-k dielectric
process integration issues and work on copper damascene manufacturing issues
that impact device performance, yield, reliability and manufacturing cost.
It contains a complete suite of deposition equipment for both metals and
dielectrics; surface preparation equipment; CMP equipment; and etch equipment
as well as a range of test equipment to enable completed structures to undergo
parametric, electromigration, and BTS testing.
FSI’s ZETA Spray Cleaning System includes fully automated configurations
for 200- and 300-mm wafer sizes and semi-automated configurations for 200-
and 150-mm wafer sizes. The ZETA System is proven for a wide range of applications,
including FEOL resist strip and post-ash clean, BEOL post-ash clean, salicide
strip, wafer bumping and wafer reclaim. The system uses centrifugal spray
technology; wafers undergo dry-in, dry-out processing in a closed, nitrogen-purged
chamber. FSI's versatile chemical delivery technology prepares the chemicals
at controlled composition and temperature and delivers them directly onto
the wafers. ZETA 200 and ZETA 300 systems are priced from $1.0 to $2.8 million.
There are 13 IC makers using 300-mm ZETA spray cleaning technology, with more
than 1,000 FSI batch spray tools currently being used in semiconductor production
worldwide.
Novellus Systems, Inc., an S&P 500 company, manufactures, markets and
services advanced deposition, surface preparation and chemical mechanical
planarization equipment for today’s advanced integrated circuits. Its
products are designed for high-volume production of advanced, leading-edge
semiconductor devices at the lowest possible cost. Headquartered in San Jose,
Calif., with subsidiaries throughout the United States, as well as in the
United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, Israel,
India, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, it is a publicly
traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange (Nasdaq: NVLS) and a component
of the Nasdaq-100 Index®. Additional information about Novellus is available
on their home page at www.novellus.com.
FSI International, Inc. is a global supplier of surface conditioning equipment
technology and support services for microelectronics manufacturing. Using
the company’s broad portfolio of cleaning products, which include batch
and single-wafer platforms for immersion, spray, vapor and CryoKinetic technologies,
customers are able to achieve their process performance, flexibility and productivity
goals. The company’s support services programs provide product and process
enhancements to extend the life of installed FSI equipment, enabling worldwide
customers to realize a higher return on their capital investment. FSI maintains
a web site at http://www.fsi-intl.com.
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