TSMC and MAPPER Reached Joint Development Milestone
February 19 2010 - 3:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
Global relationship underscores TSMC's participation in Euro tech
development HSINCHU, Taiwan and DELFT, Netherlands, Feb. 19
/PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TWSE:
2330, NYSE: TSM) and MAPPER Lithography today revealed that a
pre-alpha MAPPER tool located on TSMC's Fab 12 GigaFab(TM) is
repeatedly printing features previously unachievable using current
immersion lithography technology. Over the past several months TSMC
has expanded its Maskless Lithography team and has been working
with MAPPER engineers at Fab 12 to integrate electron beam direct
write capabilities into manufacturing processes for development of
future technology nodes. "TSMC is always searching for the most
cost effective manufacturing processes," says Dr. Shang-Yi Chiang,
TSMC Senior Vice President of Research & Development. "The
results coming from our project with MAPPER have met aggressive
objectives and mark a significant achievement in our
Multiple-E-Beam Direct Write program that covers all viable
Multiple-E-Beam technologies. Based on these encouraging results,
we are convinced that the Multiple-E-Beam technology is one of the
technologies to become the future lithography standard." Dr.
Christopher Hegarty, MAPPER's CEO adds, "Having TSMC as our launch
customer is of great benefit to MAPPER. Now that we have an
operational tool at TSMC and we simultaneously intensify our
efforts in bringing MAPPER's technology to market, we are supremely
confident that electron beam direct write will be successfully
introduced into high-volume manufacturing processes." TSMC and
MAPPER will present their latest results at the SPIE Advanced
Lithography 2010 conference in San Jose, CA. MAPPER's Technology
MAPPER develops lithography machines for the chip industry. These
machines utilize a new and innovative technology with which the
chips of the future can be made cost effectively. MAPPER's machine
provides a highly cost-effective way of making the next generation
of chips because it significantly reduces costs by eliminating the
photomask while simultaneously providing the ultimate in resolution
and high productivity. MAPPER's technology makes use of massively
parallel electron beams, thereby providing the very high resolution
of electron beam at extremely high throughput. Current lithography
machines use photographic techniques to create minute electrical
circuits smaller than 1/100th of a human hair on a silicon wafer.
They use a mask that contains the blueprint of the chip and
transfer this pattern on to a photosensitive layer (comparable to a
photograph being exposed on film), however the photographic
techniques used are very limited in the resolution they can provide
and are no longer adequate for future generations of
semiconductors. About TSMC TSMC is the world's largest dedicated
semiconductor foundry, providing the industry's leading process
technology and the foundry's largest portfolio of process-proven
libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company's
managed capacity in 2009 totaled 9.96 million (8-inch equivalent)
wafers, including capacity from two advanced 12-inch GIGAFABs(TM),
four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC's wholly
owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China, and its joint venture
fab, SSMC. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 40nm production
capabilities. Its corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com/.
About MAPPER Lithography MAPPER's offices are located in Delft, The
Netherlands, near Delft University of Technology, one of the
shareholders. MAPPER has a headcount of 170 people. Shareholders of
MAPPER are, besides Delft University of Technology, professional
investors - Capital-C Ventures, KT Venture Group, Quest for Growth
and KBC Private Equity - and private investors. DATASOURCE: TSMC;
MAPPER CONTACT: Bert Jan Kampherbeek, Vice President Market
Development of MAPPER Lithography, + 31 15 888 0250; or TSMC Acting
Spokesman, J.H. Tzeng, Deputy Director, Public Relations, +886 3
505 5028, or Michael Kramer, Senior Administrator, Public
Relations, +886 3 505 6216, both of TSMC Web Site:
http://www.tsmc.com/
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