Cymer launches OnPulse Plus

SAN DIEGO, USA: In advance of SEMICON West 2011, Cymer Inc., the world's leading supplier of light sources used by chipmakers to pattern advanced semiconductor chips, today announced OnPulse Plus, an enhancement of Cymer's widely adopted OnPulse support products.

OnPulse Plus provides real-time light source monitoring to help improve fab productivity and wafer quality in response to chipmakers' requirements for enabling data to monitor and optimize the performance of Argon Fluoride (ArF) and Krypton Fluoride (KrF) light sources to meet specific wafer fabrication requirements.

"In today's high productivity manufacturing environment, chipmakers' advanced lithography processes have increased sensitivity to lithography process variation," said Ed Brown, president and CEO of Cymer. "As wafer value increases, more emphasis on performance monitoring is needed to ensure wafer quality and high yield. With the data collection and analytical capability offered by OnPulse Plus, we are in a unique position to help our chipmaker customers minimize process variation and improve yield."

The first in a series of data-rich performance enhancement products Cymer will deliver to customers, OnPulse Plus will display, in real-time, light source performance data in a new user interface, supporting chipmaker needs to improve process control and the quality of wafers. Future enhancements will improve the data resolution and correlation of light source performance indicators at the wafer and die level. OnPulse Plus and follow-on products will leverage enabling technology acquired from Cymer's recent acquisition of eDiag Solutions.

OnPulse Plus reinforces Cymer's commitment to deliver ongoing value enhancement for new and previously installed light sources, building on the company's deep technical expertise and worldwide installed base support infrastructure. OnPulse Plus is now available for Cymer ArF and KrF light sources.