Imprint Technology On International Technology Roadmap For Semiconductors (ITRS)

Molecular Imprints, Inc. (MII), the leading manufacturer of step and flash imprint lithography (S-FIL) systems, today announced that its imprint technology has been placed on the 2003 Edition of the International Roadmap for Semiconductors. The inclusion of imprint lithography onto the 2003 ITRS was a result of a recommendation by the Lithography International Technology Working Group (ITWG). Grant Willson and S.V. Sreenivasan, both co-founders of MII, along with Doug Resnick of Motorola, and Neil Richardson of KLA-Tencor, an MII investor and strategic partner, were among those who helped champion imprint lithography during an invited presentation to the ITWG in July 2003.

The purpose of the ITRS is to ensure advancements in the performance of integrated circuits. The Molecular Imprints announcement follows the release of the new roadmap, which is an assessment of the semiconductor technology requirements, during this week’s Winter ITRS Conference in Taiwan. The imprint lithography technique is currently slated for the 32 nanometer node, which corresponds to integrated circuits having nominally 32 nanometer feature sizes. At the present time, the semiconductor community is beginning to ship volume, integrated circuits at the 90 nanometer node.

“Molecular Imprints is excited about the placement of its technology onto the ITRS. The ITWG recommendation lends further credibility to step and flash imprint lithography as a viable technology for chipmakers,” said Dr. Sreenivasan, CTO of MII. “MII is working with its strategic partners, including Lam Research, KLA-Tencor, Motorola, DARPA, and others, to reduce the risks associated with this new technology, which may advance its introduction schedule, particularly for critical layers.”

Posted 2^nd December 2003