Tegal Corporation, (Nasdaq: TGAL) an innovator of specialized production solutions for the fabrication of advanced MEMS, power ICs and optoelectronic devices, today announced it received an order for a Tegal DRIE 200 system equipped with the ProNova third-generation high-density Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) reactor. This commercial order for the Tegal ProNova reactor is from a first-time Tegal customer in the EU, who will use the Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) tool to perform innovative research for high-performance microelectronics on 200mm wafers.
In a competitive evaluation, the new ProNova ICP source demonstrated higher etch rates, improved etch depth uniformity, better etch tilt angle uniformity, and higher yields than did standard ICP sources for DRIE applications. These significant advantages over standard ICP sources were particularly evident on larger diameter wafers, in this case 200mm wafers, with the end results being wider process windows and better tool productivity, both items being critical to creating rapid cycles of learning and performing efficient development and research.
“When we began our DRIE business in September 2008 we said we would work to demonstrate and sell production-worthy silicon DRIE tools for MEMS applications to new customers and to existing Tegal customers, and we said we would work together with our customers to develop the advanced DRIE processes needed for new MEMS and 3D IC applications,” said Thomas Mika, Tegal’s President and CEO. “The commercial launch of the ProNova ICP source today, together with this order for a Tegal DRIE 200 system equipped with a ProNova reactor, confirms that Tegal offers customers the best combination of leading-edge technology, customer support, and production-proven systems for 200mm MEMS and 3D IC applications.”
The ProNova ICP source is available on Tegal 110, 200, 3200, and 4200 DRIE Wafer Processing Systems. ProNova is also compatible as a retrofit with Tegal and AMMS DRIE systems already in the field, and ProNova supports SHARP &ndash Tegal’s Super High Aspect Ratio Process, achieving etched feature aspect ratios of > 100:1 in production environments.
In support of the ProNova launch, Tegal is exhibiting at Micromachine/MEMS 2009, Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan from Wednesday 29 July 2009 through Friday 31 July 2009. Please look for Tegal and ProNova at the Canon Marketing Japan Booth, East Hall, Booth H-05.