E-beam technology enables printing 'milestone'

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Mapper Lithography engineers have combined forces to integrate electron beam direct write capabilities into manufacturing processes. The two companies described the technology as a 'milestone' and revealed that a pre-alpha Mapper tool located on TSMC's Fab 12 GigaFab has enabled this new technique. Dr Shang-Yi Chiang (pictured), TSMC senior vice president of research and development, said the results mark 'a significant achievement' in its programme, which is covering all viable multiple e-beam technologies. He said: "Based on these encouraging results, we are convinced that the multiple e-beam technology is one of the technologies to become the future lithography standard." Dr Christopher Hegarty, Mapper's ceo, added: "Now that we have an operational tool at TSMC and we simultaneously intensify our efforts in bringing Mapper's technology to market, we are supremely confident that electron beam direct write will be successfully introduced into high volume manufacturing processes." TSMC and MAPPER will present their latest results at the SPIE Advanced Lithography 2010 conference in California.