Aviza ships next-gen ALD tool to Chinese foundry

SAN FRANCISCO — Fab gear supplier Aviza Technology Inc. Monday (May 22) introduced its next-generation single wafer atomic layer deposition (ALD) system and said that the company has shipped one these products, apparently to China's Semiconductor Manufacturing Intl. Corp. (SMIC).

Aviza (Scotts Valley, Calif.) said the system, dubbed Celsior, is aimed at the 90-nanomter node. It is built on a production-proven platform that was acquired through a joint development partnership with Trikon Technologies prior to Aviza's acquisition of that company last December. The same software platform has been used in chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition and etch systems in production environments by fabs around the world, Aviza said.

Celsior features a new chamber, which, according to Aviza, lowers the tool's cost of ownership by offering increased throughput, lower chemical consumption and extended process window. The tool utilizes a patented showerhead designed to meet stringent ALD process needs, including less than 1 percent thickness uniformity requirements across a 300-mm wafer, Aviza said.

Aviza said the system is based on a reliable, field proven central transfer hub and that the product is extendible, allowing the addition of process chambers for adding future capacity or new technology.

Aviza said in a statement that the company has shipped a Celsior tool to "China's leading" IC foundry. SMIC is far and away China's leading foundry in terms of revenue, posting 2005 sales of $1.17 billion and ranking third among the world's foundries with a 6.4 percent market share, according to recent rankings from market research firm Gartner Dataquest Inc.

A spokesperson for Aviza told EE Times Monday that Aviza could not specifically identify the customer. The spokesperson said that Celsior systems have actually been shipping since last year.

"ALD is a critical technology to help achieve continued scaling of devices and meet stringent deposition challenges posed by 90-nm and below device structures," said Subrata Chatterji, vice president and general manager of Aviza's ALD business unit, in a statement. "We believe that Celsior offers our customers significant productivity and cost of ownership advantages for single wafer ALD manufacturing. Additionally, this order marks Aviza's continued penetration in the rapidly growing Chinese market."