Home > News & Expositions > News > 2002 > LEEPL Lithography Beta Machine Shipped.

News

LEEPL Lithography Beta Machine Shipped.

On March 17, 2002, TOKYO SEIMITSU Co., LTD. (Mr. Hideo Ohtsubo, Chairman and CEO) along with its subsidiary, LEEPL Corporation, shipped their first beta machine. The beta machine, which was completed last December, was shipped to SONY Corporation's Atsugi Research Institute. SONY Corporation is conducting evaluation of LEEPL from a user's viewpoint and is jointly involved with the development and promotion of the technology.

1. Background to the shipment of the beta machine

  1. Three companies, TOKYO SEIMITSU, LEEPL Corp, and SONY Corp. invited industry participants to form the LEEPL Technology Consortium in June 2001 with the objective of accelerating development and dissemination of this nextgeneration lithography technology. The number of member companies has increased since the Consortium was formed with an initial 13 companies including semiconductor device makers, semiconductor manufacturing equipment makers, mask makers and resist makers. There are now 24 active participants.
  2. At SEMICON Japan last December, two break through announcements were made: the completion of the beta machine; and that process improvements had lead to increased capabilities of the new technology for pattern printing of 45nm line width and pattern printing of 50nm contact hole.
  3. The LEEPL lithography beta machine, which was produced in less than one year from the commencement of the development program, was shipped to SONY Corp. The shipment was in line with the development schedule planned.
  4. The beta machine is compatible with 70nm line width. It can be applied to both 200mm and 300mm wafers.

2. Future plans

  1. SONY Corp will be bed down the LEEPL lithograph process, evaluating the performance of the machine. These results will be fed back to the LEEPL Technology Consortium to development of a mass production model.
  2. Another beta machine will be installed at the LEEPL Technology Consortium Evaluation Laboratory, located at the Hachioji Plant of TOKYO SEIMITSU. The Consortium will further evaluate and refine the LEEPL lithography process, in parallel with SONY Corp.
  3. The mass production model is scheduled for completion by March 2003, and is targeted for release in April 2003.