Tegal receives Silicon DRIE tool order from McGill University

PETALUMA, USA: Tegal Corp., an innovator of specialized production solutions for the fabrication of advanced MEMS, power ICs and optoelectronic devices, has received an order for a Tegal 110 S/DE DRIE tool from McGill University, a leading research university involved in developing biosensors, biochips and biomaterials using nanostructure methodologies.

The Tegal 110 S/DE DRIE tool will ship in the current quarter, and will be installed in the McGill Nanotools – Microfab, located in Montreal, Canada.

The silicon DRIE tool order from this first-time Tegal DRIE customer was secured by Tegal following a thorough competitive evaluation process by McGill University.

“We are looking forward to engaging in a variety of productive collaborations with McGill University in their particular areas of expertise, which include the important field of BioMEMS devices and applications, and we believe this order is a testament to the strength of the 110 S/DE system,” said Paul Werbaneth, Vice President of Marketing and Applications at Tegal.

“McGill’s strengths in multidisciplinary projects involving McGill’s Engineering, Science, and Medicine faculties, combined with Tegal’s strengths in deep silicon etching, and deep etching of dielectric materials, creates important synergies that we think will lead to the kind of effective, focused research which results in real value for both teams.”

“The addition of DRIE capabilities to our toolset will make the McGill Nanotools Microfab a fully equipped 150mm compatible MEMS fab,” said Dr. Matthieu Nannini, Microfab Manager. “This tool fits our needs for performance, versatility and small foot print. We are confident it will give us the opportunity to develop new processes and devices for a wide range of applications such as microfluidics, RF-MEMS, MOEMS and MEMS in general.”

The Tegal 110 S/DE system is a high-density plasma etch tool featuring an inductively coupled plasma etch reactor and magnetic plasma confinement. The tool can run Tegal’s patented SHARP – Super High Aspect Ratio Process, achieving etched feature aspect ratios of > 100:1 in production environments.

Together with its high reliability, broad process windows, and high etch rates, the Tegal 110 S/DE system is a critical enabler for etching silicon (S) and dielectric (DE) films found in the MEMS/MOEMS, bio-tech, and hi-voltage markets.

Tegal DRIE tools are presently employed in numerous research and development laboratories throughout the world, engaging in both commercial and academic research programs, and are also found in MEMS foundries and other dedicated commercial High Volume Manufacturing lines globally.