Technical Insight
JMAR buys XRL stepper supplier SAL (Materials and equipment)
JMAR Technologies (San Diego, CA) is to acquire Semiconductor Advanced Lithography (SAL), a supplier of X-ray lithography stepper systems based in South Burlington, Vermont. JMAR manufactures a collimated laser plasma source that directs 25 W X-rays onto a mask/ wafer target. Known as the picosecond X-ray light source (PXS), this short wavelength (1 nm) beam can be used in X-ray lithography (XRL) steppers to directly write patterns with line-widths smaller than 0.13 m, making it suitable for high-frequency GaAs circuits. In comparison to the other systems available for high-frequency IC line definition including deep UV and direct-write electron beam lithography processes XRL requires relatively inexpensive optics. It also offers the potential for high throughput and is scalable to sub-100 nm features sizes. JMAR expects a JMAR/SAL lithography unit to be ready for GaAs manufacturers before the end of 2002, with a price tag between $6 and $10 million depending on configuration and performance. "Before the advent of JMAR s patented highly-efficient laser plasma X-ray source, XRL had failed to gain market acceptance due to a lack of adequate or acceptable X-ray source performance characteristics," said John Martinez, JMAR s chairman and CEO. "We believe that JMAR s PXS technology successfully overcomes those shortcomings."
