SUSS MicroTec announces collaboration in Nano Research with Cornell University

GARCHING, GERMANY: SUSS MicroTec, a leading supplier of equipment and process solutions for the semiconductor industry and related markets, announced a strategic collaboration with the Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility (CNF), a university nanofab based in North America.

As part of the cooperation, Cornell staff will perform research using SUSS lithography equipment, including enhanced contact aligner tool sets and a Gamma spray coater. The research and development facilities at CNF, which hosts up to 700 users annually, will also serve SUSS MicroTec as a support lab for research applications and customer demonstrations. The new equipment is expected to become available to users early in 2011.

The lithography equipment to be installed at CNF includes two specialized mask aligner toolsets for the SUSS MA/BA6 aligner: Substrate Conformal Imprinting Lithography (SCIL), a technology developed by SUSS MicroTec in conjunction with Philips Research, that provides an inexpensive means of defining features of 10nm or less with high reproducibility by using a full-size imprint stamp and MO Exposure Optics, a patented technique developed by SUSS MicroTec’s daughter company SUSS MicroOptics.

This unique illumination technology extends the performance of standard lithography processes. The Gamma lithography coater cluster will be used to support all resist processing operations at CNF. It includes facilities for development, baking, and coating, including the SUSS spray coat module for high aspect ratio structures.

Don Tennant, director of Operations at Cornell’s NanoScale Facility, said: “The Gamma system manufactured by SUSS MicroTec will bring to CNF the high end performance coat bake and develop capability that is really needed”. Its stable, reproducible results and its process flexibility are a great match to the needs of our users. This agreement will also provide us with an opportunity to explore the exciting new technology that SUSS MicroTec has developed both for the Gamma system and for the MA/BA6 platform. We are anxious to learn what these advancements can do to enhance the efforts of our users.”

“We are very pleased to have the CNF, a recognized pioneer in nanotechnology research, as our partner,” commented Frank Averdung, President and CEO of SUSS MicroTec AG. “We are looking forward to using their state-of-the-art research facilities for further developing our technologies. We are happy to offer our North American customers the option to have their application processes set up and tested in this environment.”