FSI International, Inc. • OTS Newsletter

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November 2006

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Increasing use of Silicon Nitride for IC Manufacturing Drives New Requirements for Wet Etching Learn More ...

FSI in the News

FSI International Introduces New Etch Process to Selectively Remove Nitride Films using its MAGELLAN® Immersion Cleaning System New selective nitride etch processes suppress oxide and silicon attack without generating high particle counts.

FSI International, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2006 Financial Results Fiscal 2006 Orders Increased 50 Percent and the Company Ended the Year with $27 Million in Cash, Restricted Cash, Cash Equivalents and Marketable Securities, with No Debt

FSI International Receives Multiple Follow-on ANTARES® Orders from a Leading Worldwide Foundry In-line Parametric Test Clean Up Recovers Yield Losses

Product Updates

Pre-treatment suppresses native oxide loss and silicon attack during hot phosphoric acid nitride etch process

Using its MAGELLAN® Immersion Cleaning System, FSI has demonstrated the ability of proprietary pretreatment steps to suppress native oxide loss and silicon attack during nitride etch with hot phosphoric acid. Normally, hot phosphoric acid will quickly etch away the native oxide exposing the underlying silicon to attack. Pretreatment sufficiently reduces the etch rate of the native oxide to permit phosphoric acid treatments up to 15 minutes in duration without breaking through the native oxide layer. The pretreatment does not affect nitride removal rates. more >>

Enhanced MAGELLAN® Platform Offers World Class or HVM Throughput Up To 400 WPH

FSI’s newly enhanced MAGELLAN® Immersion Cleaning System now offers throughput up to 400 WPH. Throughput enhancing improvements include a faster wafer handling robot and an optional dual robot configuration. The new robot is capable of 250 WPH. Adding a second robot to the system can increase automated throughput up to 400 WPH. Other throughput enhancements also include design modifications to the buffer section and improvements in the process modules. All of these build upon the MAGELLAN® system’s production-proven platform and demonstrated process capabilities. FSI has received an order in FY2007 for the first of the high-throughput MAGELLAN® systems from a major North American semiconductor manufacturer. Shipment is scheduled for early 2007. more >>

AMD Presents Results of Aerosol Cleaning Evaluation at October FSI EMEA Knowledge Services™ Seminar

AMD’s Fab 36 presented the results of their evaluation of FSI’s ANTARES® aerosol cleaning process used to recover yield after electrical in-line testing. The results demonstrated the process’s ability to remove nearly all debris generated by testing, allowing engineers to return tested wafers to production. This conclusion not only allows the recovery of yield previously sacrificed to gain valuable parametric data, but also alters the cost benefit calculation for in-line testing in favor of additional testing to permit better process characterization and control. more >>

FSI’s ViPR™ Process Production Qualified by Major Semiconductor Manufacturer

FSI’s new ViPR™ process running on the ZETA® G3 platform is being used in several fabs of a major Asian semiconductor manufacturer. This represents rapid and significant progress in the acceptance of the ViPR™ process since our last report three months ago when it was still in the initial stages of a multi-tiered qualification process. more >>

Customer Care News

Customers throughout Europe and Israel Gain Knowledge about the latest in Surface Preparation Technologies

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. more >>

FSI Presents at the Ultra Clean Processing of Semiconductor Surfaces (UCPSS) Conference in Belgium

The Symposium on Ultra Clean Processing of Semiconductor Surfaces (UCPSS) occurs every two years and affords participants an opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of ultra-clean processing technologies in all phases of IC-production. The conference consists of invited presentations as well as selected contributed presentations and posters.

At the 2006 meeting, held during the week of September 18, FSI presented two papers: more >>

FSI Presents New ViPR™ All-Wet PR Strip Process in China

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™ process 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. more >>

New Publications

Please visit our Technical Library to view the latest papers available on FSI technologies

Looking Ahead

74th VLSI Forum (Japan) – Cleaning Technology in Ultra-Minute Process

74th VLSI Forum “Cleaning Technology in Ultra-Minuteness Process Generation” on Friday, November 24, 2006, hosted by Press Journal Inc. *m•FSI will present “Yield Enhancement Technology For Advanced Semiconductor Device.” (View more details at the Press Journal website.)

If you would like more information on this topic go here.

SEMICON Japan 2006

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.

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, go 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.

Asia Knowledge Services™ Seminar Series

The next FSI Knowledge Services™ Seminar Series will be held in April 2007 in the following locations:

Seoul, Korea – 10 April
Singapore – 13 April
Shanghai, China – 17 April
Hsinchu, Taiwan – 19 April

The daily agenda will include a morning short course on the fundamentals of surface preparation and an afternoon session addressing what's driving the semiconductor industry and surface conditioning strategies for advanced technology generations.

To receive a complete agenda, venue and registration information on this upcoming seminar series, go here and complete the request for more information form.