USHIO debuts world's first 200-mm wafer full-field projection lithography system

SEMICON Taiwan 2011, TOKYO, JAPAN: USHIO Inc. announced that the company has started marketing the world's first 200-mm wafer full-field projection lithography tool "UX4-3Di FFPL 200" for high-volume manufacturing of advanced LSI devices incorporating 3D integration technologies, such as through-silicon vias (TSV) and silicon interposers and bumps.

This model will be exhibited through a panel display at SEMICON Taiwan 2011, to be held on September 7 through September 9 at Taipei World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan (Booth # 3042).

UX4-3Di FFPL 200: 200-mm wafer full-field projection lithography tool
The UX4-3Di FFPL 200 announced today is the latest addition to the "UX4 Series" of full-field projection lithography tools, following the UX4-LEDs model released in July — and already used for high-volume manufacturing of LED　chips in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China — and the UX4-ECO model released last November for manufacturing power devices.

The UX4-3Di FFPL 200 is mounted with a full-field projection lens of 200 mm in diameter on the common UX4 Series modular platform to enable full-field projection exposure of a 200-mm wafer; it can achieve a high throughput of 120 wafers per hour. It offers a series of powerful features, including the IR alignment function optimized for manufacturing 3D LSIs, the backside alignment function, and the function used to handle thick photoresist films and warped or bonded wafers.

Unlike the stepper systems that lower their productivity as the wafer becomes larger, the UX4-3Di FFPL 200 uses the full-field projection method to enhance its productivity by increasing the wafer size. Therefore, it allows further enhancement of the productivity and reduction of the cost-of-operation (CoO) in the semiconductor packaging process.

Today, USHIO is developing a lens module that allows full-field projection of a 300-mm wafer. This lens module will be released in 2012.