Manufacturing Applications

• Delivery System Protects Chip Makers From Hazardous Gases

MDO-funded research at ATMI, Inc. (Danbury, CT), resulted in a safe gas handling system called the Safe Delivery Source (SDS ® ), which is now an industry standard for the semiconductor manufacturing market. The SDS is a safer and more efficient way to deliver arsine, phosphine, and boron trifluoride in the manufacturing process for doping logic and memory chips. It increases the yield, improves the safety, increases the purity, and minimizes the cost of producing and storing process gases for semiconductor production. Before ATMI’s product, the semiconductor industry delivered gases using pressurized cylinders, which posed safety and storage hazards. The tanks were also inefficient and were the major cause of implanter downtime during changing and replacement. Distributed through a licensing agreement with Matheson Gas products, the SDS is now being used for ion implantation at 80 to 90 percent of related semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the world.

• Power Source Contributes to Worldwide Chip Production

With BMDO funding, Science Research Laboratory (SRL; Somerville, MA) developed a power source called the Solid-State Pulsed Power Module (SSPPM). The SSPPM was originally designed to replace thyratron circuits in BMDO pulsed power applications. However, SRL has licensed Cymer, Inc., to use the device in its excimer lasers deployed in lithography steppers worldwide. Using the SSPPM, Cymer is now the world’s leading supplier of krypton fluoride lasers, used in more than 90 percent of steppers sold in the deep ultraviolet lithography market worldwide and accounting for a total of more than $400 million in sales. Cymer sells its lasers to suppliers such as Nikon and Canon in Japan, ASML in Holland, and Silicon Valley Group-Lithography in the United States, who, in turn, market their steppers to major semi-conductor producers such as Intel and Motorola.

• Lithium-Ion Battery Packs More Power for Portable Electronics

BMDO funded EMCORE Corporation (Somerset, NJ) to fine-tune its TurboDisc™ system, which is key to the low-cost, high-volume production of compound semiconductors.

Today, TurboDisc systems are being used by some of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, and Siemens. Adding multi-wafer capabilities to its TurboDisc technology, EMCORE has created a new tool called SpectraBlue™, which deposits commercial-quality indium gallium nitride (InGaN)-based materials on epitaxial wafers. Finished InGaN wafers are essential to high-volume production of blue and green light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Popular commercial applications for these LEDs include traffic signs, outdoor displays, and automotive lighting.