Semiconductor Firms Agree to Develop Bell Labs SCALPEL® Technology
MURRAY HILL, NJ (Nov. 3, 1999) -- A group of semiconductor device
and equipment manufacturers today announced a joint agreement aimed
at accelerating the development of SCALPEL technology into a
production lithography solution for building future generations of
integrated circuits.
Participants in the program include: eLith LLC, a joint venture
of Applied Materials, Inc. and ASM Lithography Holding N.V.; Lucent
Technologies Inc.; Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector; Samsung
Electronics Co., Ltd.; and Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI). The
program will remain open to additional companies interested in
furthering this technology.
SCALPEL projection electron lithography is being developed as a
potential successor to current optical lithography methods for
patterning smaller, more powerful chips. Using an electron source
instead of a light source, projection electron technology has the
capability to print images with features smaller than 50 nanometers
(0.05 micron), compared to today's leading-edge 180 nanometers (0.18
micron) technology.
For more information about SCALPEL, including a technical
backgrounder, refer to Three
Companies Working to Advance SCALPEL(TM)
Technology, SCALPEL
Technical Information, the Bell Labs SCALPEL
project web site or the Bell
Labs Innovations Week web site featuring SCALPEL.
"Motorola is pleased to be part of this group of
leading-edge companies which will assure that SCALPEL technology is
vigorously pursued," said Joe Mogab, manager of Advanced
Process Development for Motorola's DigitalDNA Laboratories. "We
feel that SCALPEL can become a strong technology for next generation
wafer processing which will help us maintain our leadership in
embedded processors."
"We are delighted to be part of the effort to explore this
exciting new area of lithography," said Moon Yong Lee, senior
vice president of the Semiconductor R&D Center for Samsung.
"Projection electron lithography has already shown significant
potential to be the technology of choice to create the circuits that
will be needed for advanced DRAMs (dynamic random access memory) as
we move to 0.1-micron geometries and beyond."
Bob Helms, vice president and director of Silicon Technology
Research of Texas Instruments, said, "TI is pleased to
facilitate the commercialization of electron projection lithography
through participation in this program. We believe this advanced
lithography approach has the greatest potential for our DSP and ASIC
market segments in terms of high wafer volume and low cost of
ownership. The continuation of this development effort can
potentially reduce semiconductor manufacturers' costs and continue
technology development at the 100 nanometer (0.1 micron) node and
beyond."
"The industry leaders who have joined this program validate
our belief that SCALPEL technology, developed at Lucent's Bell Labs,
is the most promising route to ICs with 0.1-micron and smaller
feature sizes," said Mark Pinto, chief technical officer of
Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group. "This agreement
will help accelerate the realization of commercially viable systems
that will allow us to deliver future generations of communications
networks and hand-held devices."
To facilitate working on the program, equipment manufacturers
Applied Materials and ASM Lithography have formed a joint venture,
eLith LLC. "The ultimate goal of this venture is to
commercialize electron projection technology as a production-worthy
manufacturing tool to enable the migration of chip technology and
the continuation of Moore's Law," said Sass Somekh, senior vice
president of Applied Materials. "We are excited to be involved
with several of the industry's top semiconductor manufacturers who
are supporting this effort."
Martin van den Brink, ASML executive vice president of Marketing
& Technology added, "The program offers us an excellent
opportunity to work directly with end-users to develop one of the
solutions that may be integrated into future manufacturing lines.
Our participation in this collaborative effort, which is part of our
advanced lithography roadmap activities, affords us an opportunity
to contribute our expertise in advanced imaging systems to further
the development of electron projection lithography."
Applied Materials, Inc. is a Fortune 500 global growth company
and the world's largest supplier of wafer fabrication systems and
services to the global semiconductor industry. Applied Materials is
traded on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol
"AMAT." Applied Materials' web site is <http://www.appliedmaterials.com>.
ASM Lithography (ASML) was founded in 1984 and is a world leader
in advanced photolithography systems that are essential to the
fabrication of modern integrated circuits. The company now has an
installed base of more than 1,200 systems at customer sites around
the world. Recognized as one of the two largest suppliers of wafer
steppers and Step & Scan systems, ASML operates demonstration
and application laboratories at its corporate headquarters located
in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, and at its U.S. headquarters in
Tempe, Arizona. Regional sales and service facilities are located
worldwide near its customers' premises. ASML is publicly traded on
both the Amsterdam Exchanges and on the Nasdaq Stock Market, under
the symbol "ASML." Visit the company's web site at <http://www.asml.com> for more
information.
Motorola is a global leader in providing integrated
communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in
1998 were $29.4 billion. Motorola is publicly traded on the New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol "MOT." For more
information on Motorola, visit the website www.motorola.com.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., with 1998 sales revenue of US$16.6
billion, is a world leader in the electronics industry. The
Korean-based firm has operations in 46 countries and employs 42,000
people worldwide. The company consists of three main business
divisions: Multimedia & Home Appliances, Semiconductors and
Information & Telecommunications. For more information visit the
website, <http://samsungelectronics.com>.
Texas Instruments Incorporated is a global semiconductor company
and the world's leading designer and supplier of digital signal
processing and analog technologies, the engines driving the
digitization of electronics. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the
company's businesses also include materials and controls,
educational and productivity solutions, and digital imaging. The
company has manufacturing or sales operations in more than 25
countries. Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol "TXN." More information is
located on the World Wide Web at <http://www.ti.com>.
See also
This information is based on a press release
written by
Steve Eisenberg
of Bell Labs Media Relations.
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