New Solstice Plating Tool Targets Smaller substrate Users
Plater cuts costs for emerging technologies
ClassOne Technology has announced its new Solstice line of electroplating tools. Described as 'advanced plating for the rest of us', Solstice is designed specifically for the smaller-substrate users in emerging technologies such as MEMs, LEDs, power devices, RF communications, interposers, photonics and microfluidics. According to the company Solstice is priced at that's less than half of equivalent 300mm tools from the large manufacturers.
"For too long, the bigger equipment companies have focused on building ever-smaller devices on ever-larger substrates," said Kevin Witt, ClassOne's VP of technology. "They've been serving the market segment that buys expensive high-end tools - but they've left the cost-conscious 100 to 200mm people behind. Up till now, the smaller-substrate users either had to buy used equipment or pay top dollar to get the big manufacturers to build them a 200mm or smaller plating tool." According to Byron Exarcos, president of ClassOne, Solstice is the first automated plating tool that can deliver advanced performance on smaller substrates at affordable prices.
The new Solstice comes in two models: The fully-automated, cassette-to-cassette Solstice S8 provides up to eight process chambers for throughputs up to 75 wph, with system prices starting at $1 million. The semi-automated Solstice LT features 1 or 2 chambers for development and pilot lines, with systems starting at $350k. So, emerging technology users now have an affordable, scalable path from wet bench to volume production and higher ROI.
The plating equipment enables multiple types of metal deposition with chemical pre-wet, etch, rinse and drying processes, all on a single-wafer, highly-reliable, automated system - and all driven by the long-proven Solaris controller on a Windows 7 platform.
