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Seiko Instruments Inc. Joins LEEPL Technology Consortium

The LEEPL Technology Consortium today welcomed a new member, Seiko Instruments Inc. The Consortium is headed by TOKYO SEIMITSU Co., Ltd. (Mr. Hideo Ohtsubo, Chairman and CEO) together with its subsidiary company, LEEPL Corporation and Sony Corporation. This brings the total membership of the LEEPL Technology Consortium to 29 companies.

1. Bringing valuable input

Seiko Instruments Inc. is expected to contribute the application of its Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technology into mask repair for LEEPL's 1X stencil mask.

2. LEEPL Technology Consortium

  1. The Consortium was formed on June 14, 2001 with the objective of accelerating development and dissemination of next-generation lithography technology. Initial participants were 13 companies including semiconductor device makers, semiconductor manufacturing equipment makers, mask makers and resist makers. Including Seiko Instruments Inc., the total number of active participants is now 29.

    The full list of current member companies is: Sony Corporation, NEC Corporation, RHOM Co., Ltd., Texas Instruments Incorporated, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., SHARP CORPORATION, Hitachi Ltd., Seiko Epson Corporation, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, TOSHIBA CORPORATION, United Microelectronics Corporation, SANYO Electric Co., Ltd, NTT Advanced Technology Corporation, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., TOPPAN PRINTING Co., Ltd., HOYA CORPORATION, TOKYO OHKA KOGYO Co., Ltd., JSR Corporation, Seiko Instruments Inc., FUJIFILM Arch Co., Ltd., NuFlare Technology Inc., Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., SHIPLEY FAR EAST Ltd., NIPPON CONTROL SYSTEM CORPORATION, Leica Microsystems Japan, NaWoTec GmbH, JEOL Ltd., LEEPL Corporation and TOKYO SEIMITSU Co., Ltd.

  2. The performance of the first LEEPL beta machine (which meets the requirements for design node 65nm) has been evaluated at Sony Corporation, aimed at bedding down the LEEPL lithography process. Feedback from this evaluation at Sony has been utilized for the development of a production model. In conjunction with this, a second beta machine has been in operation for evaluation of the LEEPL lithography process, at the "LEEPL Technology Consortium Evaluation Laboratory" in the Hachioji plant of Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd.
  3. In the "LEEPL Technology Forum" held on December 4, 2002, advances in infrastructure technology, including mask technology, towards the practical application of the LEEPL lithography system were confirmed. The achievements have drawn considerable attention from the semiconductor industry, particularly device makers considering the introduction of LEEPL into their production lines. The completion of the mass production model, planned for release in March 2003, is highly anticipated.

Seiko Instruments Inc. made a guest presentation at this recent technology forum, releasing verified data that demonstrates their FIB mask repair technology can be applied to 1X stencil masks and confirming that the LEEPL infrastructure technology is progressing steadily.