Tegal Corporation, a provider of designer and manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems used in the production of integrated circuits, MEMS, and nanotechnology devices, has received an order for a Tegal 6500 HRe plasma etch tool from SVTC Technologies, San Jose, California. To be installed in SVTC’s 200mm development foundry in San Jose, the Tegal system will ship this quarter.

 

Tegal says the company is pleased to have its 6500 Series system added to the impressive 8-inch processing tool set SVTC has already assembled. The Tegal 6500 will support SVTC’s companies needing specialized metal film etch, including but not limited to applications in non-volatile memory. Along with the other etch markets that SVTC servesc, the company also expects to have a good collaboration with SVTC on process development for leading-edge applications in the advanced memory space.

 

Apart from serving the rapidly growing novel memory and transistor market, SVTC, which operates the leading process development foundry in the U.S., also serves other markets such as MEMS/MOEMS, photovoltaics, biotechnology, image sensors and high-voltage markets. As part of the plasma etch equipment order, Tegal also announced that Tegal and SVTC are working together on process recipe development for these applications.

 

The Tegal 6500 system is a high-density plasma etch tool that features the unique HRe capacitively coupled plasma etch reactor, and Tegal’s patented dual-frequency RF power technology and magnetic plasma confinement. The Tegal system is a critical enabler for etching the metal electrodes and storage cell materials used in advanced memory fabrication along with its on-board photoresist strip module and spin-rinse-dry station. It also enables other ferroelectric, magnetic, high-K dielectric, compound semiconductor, and interconnect materials found in the MEMS/MOEMS, photovoltaic, bio-tech and hi-voltage markets.

 

According to Wilbur Catabay, Vice President of Technology, SVTC, “Tegal’s production-proven 6500 platform was the obvious choice for our customers with advanced memory development programs. With the Tegal tool, we can offer even more significant time-to-market advantages for the specialized materials, processes, and integration requirements of advanced memory device development and productization. In addition, the 6500 platform will be important for other customers who need advanced plasma etch capabilities. We see Tegal as our preferred strategic etch supplier for these important applications.”