Ultratech Stepper and ShinEtsu MicroSi Announce Strategic Technology Program
Ultratech Stepper and ShinEtsu MicroSi Announce Strategic Technology Program
The Two Companies Will Focus on Thick Film Resist & Specialty Resist Applications to Offer Cost Effective Manufacturing Processes
PHOENIX, AZ. Ultratech Stepper and ShinEtsu MicroSi today announced that they have formed a non-exclusive strategic alliance to jointly develop processes for thick film and specialty photoresist applications using the Ultratech 1x and reduction (XLS) line of steppers. The alliance will utilize Ultratech s latest tools to evaluate the performance of ShinEtsu MicroSi s SIPR i-line, g-line and broadband resist materials and will examine their use in a variety of applications, including thin film heads (TFH), micromachining and bump processing. These manufacturing processes can offer microelectronic device makers (including silicon wafers, thin film heads for disk drives, and others) a more cost effective and faster means to produce the device by presenting customers with tools that perform to their unique processing specifications. Ultratech and ShinEtsu MicroSi will work together on both existing materials and leading-edge tools and will also focus on advanced and future applications. ShinEtsu MicroSi President John Sesody commented, "We believe this partnership with Ultratech gets us much closer to offering certain customers a process solution, not just a material. By working together with Ultratech toward that goal, we can provide an important new resource for the industry. Having the opportunity to test our products on Ultratech s latest tools allows us to explore many new market possibilities. It eliminates the excessive cost burden of maintaining advanced steppers yet allows us to characterize I-line, g-line and advanced materials on the most sophisticated equipment." "We re very pleased to be working with ShinEtsu MicroSi," said Ultratech s president and COO, Daniel Berry. "Having access to this company s impressive range of resist products allows us to further refine the working process of our most advanced tools, including the new i-line and deep UV XLS reduction steppers and the new broadband 1X bump stepper. We re looking forward to a mutually rewarding relationship that we expect will bring substantial benefits to the customers we both serve." The catalyst for the agreement was a joint project performed by the two companies for thin film head manufacturing. ShinEtsu MicroSi presented a paper at the recent Ultratech Stepper Thin Film Head Lithography Seminar in San Jose that demonstrated a 0.5 micron process using an Ultratech XLS stepper and ShinEtsu MicroSi s SIPR thick film i-line photoresist. Other applications where the two companies see their partnership working smoothly to deliver a manufacturing process include semiconductor packaging, MEMS, gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers, high energy implants and RF devices. Several of the largest applications for a thick film resist include ink jet print heads, disk drive thin film heads and accelerometers for air bags.
About ShinEtsu MicroSi: ShinEtsu purchased MicroSi in 1989 and expanded its product lines, which now include photolithography products (DUV and specialty photoresists, pellicles, quartz substrates for photomasks and contrast enhancement materials), semiconductor packaging products (thermal management products, device packaging products and silicone polyimides) and high performance flexible copper laminates used in the production of flexible circuits. ShinEtsu Chemical Co., Ltd., the Tokyo based chemical company, is the world s largest supplier of semiconductor materials, semiconductor silicon, synthetic quartz glass and PVC and is a major producer of materials including silicones, methylcellulose, and rare earths. The company s home page on the World Wide Web is located at http://www. microsi.com. About Ultratech Stepper: Founded in 1979, Ultratech Stepper, Inc. (Nasdaq NM: UTEK) designs, manufactures and markets photolithography equipment used worldwide in the fabrication of integrated circuits, micromachining devices, thin film heads for disk drives and photomasks for the semiconductor industry. The company s home page on the World Wide Web is located at http://www.ultratech.com.
CONTACT:
ShinEtsu MicroSi
John Sesody, President
480/893-8898
jsesody@microsi.com
Elliott Capsuto, Product Manager
408/436-4820
ecapsuto@microsi.com
Ultratech Stepper
Laura Rebouche
408/321-8835
lrebouche@corp.ultratech.com
Kirkpatrick Communications
Bruce Kirkpatrick
925/244-9100
brucekirk@kirk-com.com
Capsuto, Product Manager 408/436-4820 ecapsuto@microsi.com
Ultratech Stepper Laura Rebouche 408/321-8835 lrebouche@corp.ultratech.comKirkpatrick
Communications Bruce Kirkpatrick 925/244-9100 brucekirk@kirk-com.com
E-mail: brucekirk@kirk-com.com
Web site: http://www.ultratech.com
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